Shoshone Tribe v. United States

What happened

By a treaty of July 3, 1868, a reservation was set apart for the Shoshone Indians exclusively. On March 18, 1878, a band of Arapahoes, under military escort, settled on the land, and others did so later.

According to the Supreme Court, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs directed or sanctioned these moves, intending the settlements to be permanent. From then on he treated the two tribes as equal beneficiaries of the reservation, a view that at length found support in Acts of Congress dealing with cessions of land and allotment. The Shoshones protested consistently against the invasion of their rights. In 1927 Congress passed a jurisdictional act letting them sue in the Court of Claims for the taking of an undivided one-half interest in their tribal lands.

The case reached the Supreme Court on both sides' petitions, and on January 4, 1937 the Court reversed the Court of Claims' judgment on how to measure the award. It held that the guardianship of the United States "does not enable the Government to require a tribe" with an exclusive treaty right of occupancy "to share it with another tribe without just compensation."

A taking, the Court said, may be partial and need not involve complete eviction. The government's later actions ratified the original wrongful entry, so damages should be measured as of March 18, 1878. The Shoshones were also entitled to interest or a fair equivalent on top of the land's value.

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