Seminole Nation v. United States

What happened

The Seminole Nation sued the United States in the Court of Claims over claims growing out of treaties, agreements and acts of Congress. The case reached the Supreme Court for a second time after an earlier reversal on jurisdiction.

Under Article VIII of the 1856 treaty the government had agreed to provide a set sum each year for ten years for specified purposes, and to set up a trust fund whose interest would be paid to tribal members per capita. In the 1866 treaty it agreed to pay for schools and to build "suitable agency buildings" at a cost not above $10,000. The Nation said the money was misspent or paid to the wrong people.

On May 11, 1942, Justice Murphy wrote for the Court. It rejected several claims: one had been released by the 1866 treaty, school payments satisfied the treaty because the schools received the benefit, and the agency-buildings promise was not breached.

But for payments made from 1870 to 1874 to the tribal treasurer and to creditors at the General Council's request, the Court sent the case back. The lower court had to find whether the Council was "corrupt, venal, and false to its trust," whether government officers knew it, and whether the Nation received any benefit. The Court wrote that the United States "has charged itself with moral obligations of the highest responsibility and trust," so its conduct "should therefore be judged by the most exacting fiduciary standards."

Summarized with AI assistance from 3 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error