Title: Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe - Wikipedia
Headings: Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe
Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contents
Background
Procedural history
Ruling
Dissenting opinion
Effects
Evolution
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Content: The Court rejected the Ninth Circuit's approach, which interpreted the treaty's silence in favor of tribal sovereignty and applied the "long-standing rule that legislation affecting the Indians is to be construed in their interest." Instead, the Court revived the doctrine of implicit divestiture. Citing Johnson v. M'Intosh and Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, the Court considered criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians an example of the "inherent limitations on tribal powers that stem from their incorporation into the United States," similar to tribes' abrogated rights to alienate land. By incorporating into the United States, the Court found that Tribes "necessarily [gave] up their power to try non-Indian citizens of the United States except in a manner acceptable to Congress". Arguing that non-Indian citizens should not be subjected to another sovereign's "customs and procedure", the Court analogizes to Crow Dog. In Crow Dog, which was decided before the Major Crimes Act, the Court found exclusive Tribal jurisdiction over Tribe-members because it would be unfair to subject Tribe-members to an "unknown code" imposed by people of a different "race [and] tradition" from their own. Although the Court found no inherent Tribal criminal jurisdiction, it acknowledged the "prevalence of non-Indian crime on today's reservations which the tribes forcefully argue requires the ability to try non-Indians" and invited "Congress to weigh in" on "whether Indian tribes should finally be authorized to try non-Indians". Dissenting opinion
Justice Thurgood Marshall
Justice Thurgood Marshall dissented. In his view, the right to punish all individuals who commit crimes against tribal law within the reservation was a necessary aspect of the tribe's sovereignty: I agree with the court below that the "power to preserve order on the reservation ... is a sine qua non of the sovereignty that the Suquamish originally possessed."