New York ex rel. Cutler v. Dibble
| New York ex rel. Cutler v. Dibble | |
|---|---|
|
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| Decided December, 1858 | |
| Full case name | People of State of New York ex rel. Asa Cutler, John Underhill, and Arza Underhill v. Edgar C. Dibble, County Judge of Genesee County |
| Citations | 62 U.S. 366 (more)
21 How. 366, 16 L. Ed. 149
|
| Prior history | 18 Barb. 412 (N.Y. Sup. Gen. Term 1854), aff'd,16 N.Y. (2 E.P. Smith) 203 (1854) |
| Holding | |
| The New York nonintercourse act does not violate the Indian Commerce Clause, the federal Nonintercourse Act or the Treaty of Buffalo Creek | |
| Court membership | |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Grier |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 3; Nonintercourse Act; Treaty of Buffalo Creek | |
New York ex rel. Cutler v. Dibble, 62 U.S. (21 How.) 366 (1858), was a companion case to the more well-known Fellows v. Blacksmith (1857). At the time Fellows was decided, this case had reached the U.S. Supreme Court but had not yet been argued.
Members of the Seneca tribe had obtained a writ from the New York courts, under New York's state nonintercourse act, expelling the Ogden Land Company and their grantees. The defendants, before the Court, unsuccessfully challenged the state statute under the Indian Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution, the federal Nonintercourse Act and the Treaty of Buffalo Creek between the federal government and the Senecas. Because the Senecas relied on state law, and the defendants relied on federal law, the case is essentially the inverse of the litigation of aboriginal title in the United States over the next 150 years.
The Treaty of Buffalo Creek (1838) provided for the removal of the Senecas to modern-day Kansas, with their land to pass to the Ogden Land Company. The Tonawanda Band of Seneca Indians on the Tonawanda Reservation condemned the treaty, arguing that no sachem from their Band had signed. Prominent Seneca Ely S. Parker had retained lawyer John H. Martindale, who had brought four lawsuits against the Ogden Land Company and their grantees. The first two failed in the New York Supreme Court and New York Court of Appeals, respectively. The third, Fellows v. Blacksmith (1857), prevailed in the Court of Appeals and U.S. Supreme Court. In the fourth, New York ex rel. Cutler v. Dibble, a divided Court of Appeals had sided with the Seneca and the U.S. Supreme Court had agreed to hear the case at the time Fellows was decided.
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