Solem v. Bartlett

What happened

On May 29, 1908, Congress authorized the Secretary of the Interior to open 1.6 million acres of the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota for homesteading. The Act directed that the sale proceeds be deposited in the Treasury to the credit of the Indians with tribal rights on the reservation.

In 1979 South Dakota charged John Bartlett, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, with attempted rape. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to ten years in the state penitentiary. He then asked a federal court for habeas corpus. He argued that the crime occurred in Indian country, that the 1908 Act did not diminish the reservation, and that the State therefore lacked jurisdiction. The district court granted the writ and the Eighth Circuit affirmed.

On February 22, 1984, the Supreme Court affirmed. Justice Marshall wrote that "Only Congress can divest an Indian reservation of its land and diminish its boundaries," and that Congress "must clearly evince an intent" to change boundaries.

The Court looked at the Act's words, the circumstances of its passage and later events. It said the language authorizing the Secretary to "sell and dispose" of the lands, together with the creation of Indian accounts for the proceeds, suggested the Secretary was acting as the Tribe's sales agent. Isolated phrases could not carry the burden of showing an intent to diminish, and the opened lands had kept their Indian character since 1908.

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