Sioux Tribe v. United States

• Decision Date: 19 July 1974
• Docket Number: Appeal No. 13-72.
• Citation: 500 F.2d 458
• Parties: The SIOUX TRIBE et al. v. The UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Claims Court

500 F.2d 458

The SIOUX TRIBE et al. v. The UNITED STATES.

Appeal No. 13-72.

United States Court of Claims.

July 19, 1974.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Marvin J. Sonosky, Washington, D. C., attorney of record, for Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, Santee Sioux Tribe.

Arthur Lazarus, Jr., Washington, D. C., attorney of record, for Pine Ridge Sioux Tribe.

William Howard Payne, Washington, D. C., attorney of record, for Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and Sioux Tribe of the Fort Peck Reservation, Montana.

Angelo A. Iadarola, Washington, D. C., attorney of record, for Yankton Sioux Tribe. Wilkinson, Cragun & Barker and Frances L. Horn, Washington, D. C., of counsel.

Craig A. Decker, Land & Natural Resources Division, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C., with whom was Asst. Atty. Gen. Wallace H. Johnson, for the United States.

Marvin J. Sonosky, Washington, D. C., attorney of record, for Sisseton and Wahpeton Bands of Sioux Indians, amicus curiae.

Before COWEN, Chief Judge, and DAVIS and SKELTON, Judges.

COWEN, Chief Judge:

The appeals and cross-appeals in this case require us to review eight interlocutory orders of the Indian Claims Commission. The appellants are eight groups of Sioux Indians. Their claims against the United States are filed under Docket No. 74 of the Indian Claims Commission and are based on certain wrongs alleged to have been committed by the United States against their ancestral tribes, i. e., the Teton Sioux Tribe, the Yanktonais Sioux Tribe, and the Sioux of the Santee Reservation in Nebraska. For convenience, the appellants will be referred to as the Docket 74 Sioux, since they are also appellees in certain of the cross-appeals. The Yankton Sioux Tribe, whose claims are filed under Docket No. 332-C of the Indian Claims Commission, is a present-day tribe. Its suits are based on wrongs allegedly committed by the United States against the ancestral Yankton Sioux Tribe. The tribe is a party to this appeal, both as an appellee and as a cross-appellant. The United States is a party to this appeal as an appellee and also as a cross-appellant.

Appeal from 24 Ind.Cl.Comm. 147

In its decision in Sioux Tribe of Indians v. United States, 15 Ind.Cl.Comm. 577 (1965), the Indian Claims Commission ruled that the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie (11 Stat. 749, 2 Kapp. 594) recognized the title of the "Sioux or Dahcotah Nation" to approximately 60 million acres of land situated west of the Missouri River in what are now the States of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana. At that time, the Indian Claims Commission did not express an opinion as to what bands or groups constituted the "Sioux or Dahcotah Nation" in Article 5 of the treaty.¹ That question remained unresolved until 1970 when the Commission reached the following decision which is the subject of this appeal: (1) the phrase "Sioux or Dahcotah Nation" in the Fort Laramie Treaty included only the Teton and Yankton divisions of the Sioux (and not the Yanktonais); (2) the Teton and Yankton divisions of the Sioux held an undivided 83 and 17 percent interest respectively in the Sioux portion of the Fort Laramie land. 24 Ind.Cl.Comm. 147 (1970).

The Commission based its decision upon an analysis of the history and purpose of the 1851 Treaty. It concluded that the United States intended the Fort Laramie Treaty to include only the Sioux located south or west of the Missouri River, which, as found by the Commission, were the Yankton and the Teton divisions of the Sioux. The Yanktonais Sioux, on the other hand, resided generally north or east of the Missouri River, were far removed from either of the transportation routes the treaty was designed to protect, and did not have a chief or other representative who signed the 1851 Treaty or the 1853 Senate amendment thereto.² Having so found, the Commission then proceeded to apportion the Fort Laramie land between the Tetons and the Yanktons. The Commission rejected the tribal theory (tenancy in common) for determining the respective interests of the claimants and apportioned the land on the basis of the total population of the two tribal divisions near the effective date of the treaty.

The Docket 74 Sioux (consisting mainly of the descendants of the Tetons and the Yanktonais)³ first challenged the determination that the Yankton Sioux were entitled to an undivided 17 percent interest in the Sioux-Laramie land in a motion for rehearing. In this motion, the Docket 74 Sioux contended: (a) the 1851 Treaty only recognized title in those Indians permanently living on the land; (b) subsequent actions of the parties to the treaty showed the Yanktons had no interest, and (c) if population is the correct method for calculating the interests of the parties, only those Indians who actually lived on or used the land should be counted. On March 1, 1972, the Commission rejected the several contentions of the Docket 74 Sioux in an opinion denying the motion for rehearing, 27 Ind.Cl.Comm. 49 (1972).

While the Yankton Sioux support the Commission's decision, the Docket 74 Sioux and the Government are dissatisfied with one or another aspect of the Commission's ruling. The Docket 74 Sioux (appellants) claim that the term "Sioux or Dahcotah Nation" in the Fort Laramie Treaty includes three groups: Teton, Yankton, and Yanktonais, and that the Commission erroneously disregarded the language and history of the treaty as well as its contemporaneous administrative interpretation in excluding the Yanktonais from the 1851 Treaty. The Docket 74 Sioux further contend that the Commission erred in several respects in awarding the Yankton Sioux an undivided 17 percent interest in the Fort Laramie country; they argue (1) that Congress only intended to recognize title in the Indians actually occupying the land; (2) that in recognizing the 17 percent interest in the Yankton Sioux, the Commission adopted an interpretation contrary to the past construction given the 1851 Treaty by the parties; (3) that if population is the sole correct criterion for determining the relative interests of the Indian parties, then the Commission erred in failing to confine the population figures used to those Sioux who lived on the land in question; and (4) that the Commission's award of 17 percent interest to the Yankton Sioux is unreasonable and not supported by substantial evidence.

As shown infra, the Government contends that any claim based on the Treaty of Fort Laramie is barred by the statute of limitations. The Government also seeks to protect the public treasury from the possibility of double liability resulting from the Commission's rulings on the conflicting claims involved herein.⁴ The Government has filed a cross-appeal, arguing that the Fort Laramie Treaty was intended to recognize the ownership in the Indians who held aboriginal title in the land at the time and that the case should be remanded to the Commission for a new division (replacing the prior division made by total population figures) on the basis of the Teton-Yankton aboriginal title interest.

The question before us concerns the proper interpretation of the words "Sioux or Dahcotah Nation" in Article 5 of the Fort Laramie Treaty. Although the Commission's findings of fact are conclusive if supported by substantial evidence, this court must determine whether the Indian Claims Commission's conclusions of law are valid and supported by the Commission's findings of fact. 25 U.S.C. § 70s(b) (1970). We have repeatedly held that the interpretation of an Indian treaty is a question of law, not a matter of fact. See Citizens Band of Potawatomi Indians v. United States, 391 F.2d 614, 618, 179 Ct.Cl. 473, 482, cert. denied, 389 U.S. 1046, 88 S.Ct. 771, 19 L.Ed.2d 839 (1968); Minnesota Chippewa Tribe v. United States, 315 F.2d 906, 908, 161 Ct.Cl. 258, 262 (1963). Therefore, in approaching this case, we are free to reach an independent conclusion on the proper legal interpretation of the Fort Laramie Treaty and on the sufficiency of the evidence before the Commission to support its decision.

A. The Indian Claims Commission did not err in excluding the Yanktonais Sioux from the 1851 Treaty. The Docket 74 Sioux level a broad attack on the Commission's evaluation of the scope of the Fort Laramie Treaty. Basically, the Docket 74 Sioux argue that the 1851 Treaty recognized title in the "Sioux of the Missouri," a term that includes the Teton, the Yankton, and the Yanktonais. This is a serious argument in light of certain aspects of the history and administration of the treaty. On balance, however, we find the Indian Claims Commission correctly resolved the conflicting claims on this issue.

We begin our examination of the 1851 Treaty by studying the language of the document itself and then turn to the background material to the extent necessary to ascertain the meaning of the treaty provision in question. The preamble of the Fort Laramie Treaty states that the treaty is between the United States "and the chiefs, headmen, and braves of the following Indian nations, residing south of the Missouri River, east of the Rocky Mountains * * *." 2 Kapp. 594 (emphasis added). The treaty further describes the territory of the "Sioux or Dahcotah Nation" (for treaty purposes) as partially circumscribed by the Missouri River on the north and east. Id.

The Docket 74 Sioux argue that the phrase "Sioux or Dahcotah Nation" clearly and unambiguously refers to the "Missouri Sioux" so that it is unnecessary to look to the background of the treaty. In this regard, the Yankton Sioux point out that the term "Sioux Nation" was traditionally used to describe Indians who spoke the Sioux or Dahcotah language, lived in contiguous areas, and whose relationships with one another were friendly; the Yankton, Teton, and Yanktonais were self-governing units; they were a part of seven major divisions (Medawakantons, Wahpakootas, Sissetons, Wahpetons,...