City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York
| City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Argued January 11, 2005 Decided March 29, 2005 |
|
| Full case name | City of Sherrill, New York v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York, et al. |
| Citations | 544 U.S. 197 (more)
125 S. Ct. 1478, 161 L. Ed. 2d 386
|
| Prior history | Oneida Indian Nation v. City of Sherrill, 337 F.3d 139 (2d Cir. N.Y. 2003) |
| Subsequent history | Rehearing denied, 544 U.S. 1057 (2005), on remand sub nom. Oneida Indian Nation of N.Y. v. Madison Cnty., 401 F. Supp. 2d 219 (N.D.N.Y. 2005), motion to amend denied, 235 F.R.D. 559 (N.D.N.Y. 2006), aff'd, 605 F.3d 149 (2nd Cir. 2010), cert. granted, 131 S. Ct. 459 (2010), vacated and remanded sub nom. Madison Cnty. v. Oneida Indian Nation of N.Y., 131 S. Ct. 704 (2011) (per curiam) |
| Holding | |
| Reversed and remanded. Held that repurchase of traditional tribal lands did not restore tribal sovereignty to that land. | |
| Court membership | |
|
|
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Ginsburg, joined by Rehnquist, O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Breyer |
| Concurrence | Souter |
| Dissent | Stevens |
| Laws applied | |
| 25 U.S.C. § 465 | |
City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York, 544 U.S. 197 (2005), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that repurchase of traditional tribal lands did not restore tribal sovereignty to that land.
The Oneida Indian Nation originally lived on about 6,000,000 acres (24,000 km2) in central New York. In 1788, the state of New York and the tribe entered into a treaty where the tribe ceded all but 300,000 acres (1,200 km2) to the state and kept the 300,000 as their reservation. Two years later, the United States Congress passed the Indian Trade and Intercourse Act, prohibiting the sale of tribal lands without the permission and ratification of the federal government.
In violation of that and subsequent laws to protect the tribes, the state of New York continued to purchase tribal land and remove tribes to western lands, such as the part of the Oneida people who became the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin; and the and the Brothertown Indians, who also moved from land they owned in New York to Wisconsin. By 1920, the tribe had only 32 acres (130,000 m2).
In 1997 and 1998, the tribe purchased land on the open market that had been part of their original reservation. The city of Sherrill sought to impose property taxes on the land, and the tribe maintained that, as tribal lands, the property was tax-exempt. A similar case was filed in Oneida Indian Nation of N.Y. v. Madison Cnty., 401 F. Supp. 2d 219 (N.D.N.Y. 2005).
The Oneida Nation sought equitable relief in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York and the trial court enjoined the city of Sherrill and Madison County, New York from taxing the tribal property.
Both the city of Sherrill and Madison County appealed the decision to the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. The Circuit Court affirmed. The defendants appealed again and the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari.
...
Wikipedia