Ex parte Crow Dog

What happened

Crow Dog, an Indian of the Brule Sioux band, was in the jail of Lawrence County, Dakota Territory, under a sentence of death imposed by the territorial district court. He had been convicted of murdering Spotted Tail, an Indian of the same band and nation. The killing took place in Indian country. Crow Dog petitioned the Supreme Court for writs of habeas corpus and certiorari.

The question was whether the 1868 treaty with the Sioux, or an 1877 agreement embodied in an act of Congress, gave United States courts power over such a crime. The Court said no and freed him. Revised Statutes section 2146 excepted from federal jurisdiction in Indian country "crimes committed by one Indian against the person or property of another Indian." The treaty's "bad men" clause, and the 1877 provision that the Indians "shall be subject to the laws of the United States," did not repeal that exception.

The Court said courts do not favor repeals of statutes by implication, and that a court of limited jurisdiction should not take a case involving human life through an implied repeal of a statute denying it, when the words relied on are general and inconclusive.

Congress acted two years later. Section 9 of the Indian Appropriation Act of March 3, 1885 gave territorial courts jurisdiction over seven named crimes (murder, manslaughter, rape, assault with intent to kill, arson, burglary and larceny) committed by Indians in the Territories, and gave federal courts jurisdiction over the same crimes committed on an Indian reservation within a State. The Court upheld that section in United States v. Kagama (1886).

Summarized with AI assistance from 4 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error