United States v. Creek Nation

United States v. Creek Nation, 295 U.S. 103 (1935), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the compensation for land taken from the Creek Nation by the United States was the value of the land at the time of the taking, plus interest.

United States v. Creek Nation
Argued October 8, 1934
Decided April 29, 1935
Full case nameUnited States v. Creek Nation
Citations295 U.S. 103 (more)
55 S. Ct. 681; 79 L. Ed. 1331
Case history
Prior77 Ct. Cl. 159 (1933)
Holding
Held that the compensation for land taken from the Creek by the United States was the value of the land at the time of the taking, plus interest.
Court membership
Chief Justice
Charles E. Hughes
Associate Justices
Willis Van Devanter · James C. McReynolds
Louis Brandeis · George Sutherland
Pierce Butler · Harlan F. Stone
Owen Roberts · Benjamin N. Cardozo
Case opinion
MajorityVan Devanter, joined by unanimous
Laws applied
Act of May 24, 1924, ch. 181, 43 Stat. 139

Background

In 1833, the United States government made a treaty with the Muscogee (Creek) Indians, and conveyed a large part of the Indian Territory to the tribe.[1] Unlike most treaties, the Creek obtained the land under fee simple title, rather than the federal government holding the land in trust for the tribe.[2] In 1866 the Creek tribe ceded the western half of the land to the United States and in 1872 the land was surveyed.[3] The survey contained an error, and as a result, 5,575.57 acres of Creek land was turned over to the Sac and Fox tribe.[4]

In 1924, Congress passed a law[5] allowing the Creek Nation to sue the United States for compensation arising out of government misdeeds from a treaty, agreement, or law of the United States.[6] The Creek Nation sued for compensation in the United States Court of Claims.[7]

In the Court of Claims, the United States admitted that the Creek Nation was entitled to compensation, the disagreement was over the way that the damages would be calculated.[8] The United States want the damages to be fixed at the value of the property in 1873, the tribe wanted it to be the value of the land at the time that they filed suit.[9] The Court of Claims ruled in favor of the tribe, setting the value at $30 per acre as the value in 1926.[10]

Supreme Court
Justice Willis Van Devanter, author of the opinion

Justice Willis Van Devanter delivered the opinion of the Court. Although he noted that, unlike most tribes, the Creeks actually owned the land in this case, Van Devanter said that the United States had the right to act as a guardian over the tribe, but that did not authorize the government to take the land.[11] Van Devanter stated that the government's taking of Creek land did not occur in 1873, when the survey was filed, nor had it occurred in 1926 when the Creeks brought suit.[12] Instead, he found that the taking occurred in 1891, when Congress authorized the government to dispose of the land to settlers.[13] The value of the land at that time would need to be determined, and the Creek Nation would be entitled to that amount, with interest at 5% per annum.[14] The decision of the Court of Claims was reversed and the matter remanded for the Court of Claims to determine the proper compensation based on the Supreme Court opinion.[15]

Subsequent developments

The case is thought to have laid the groundwork for later trustee-violation cases, such as United States v. Shoshone Tribe,[16] that cited Creek Nation in support.[17] It was noted that the courts began to transition from a guardianship role to a trustee role, and that the Fifth Amendment protected Indian lands from government seizures.[18]

References

The citations in this article are written in Bluebook style. Please see the talk page for more information.

  1. United States v. Creek Nation, 295 U.S. 103, 105 (1935); Treaties with American Indians: An Encyclopedia of Rights, Conflicts, and Sovereignty 681 (Donald L. Fixico ed. 2007).
  2. Creek Nation, 295 U.S. at 105; Fixico, at 681.
  3. Creek Nation, 295 U.S. at 106; Fixico, at 681.
  4. Creek Nation, 295 U.S. at 106; Fixico, at 681.
  5. Act of May 24, 1924, ch. 181, 43 Stat. 139.
  6. Creek Nation, 295 U.S. at 105.
  7. Creek Nation, 295 U.S. at 105.
  8. Creek Nation, 295 U.S. at 107-08.
  9. Creek Nation, 295 U.S. at 107; Fixico, at 681.
  10. Creek Nation, 295 U.S. at 108.
  11. Creek Nation, 295 U.S. at 109; The Encyclopedia of Native American Legal Tradition 349 (Bruce Elliott Johansen ed. 1998); Rosalind Kidd, Trustees on Trial: Recovering the Stolen Wages 40 (2006).
  12. Creek Nation, 295 U.S. at 111.
  13. Creek Nation, 295 U.S. at 111; Kidd, at 40.
  14. Creek Nation, 295 U.S. at 112; Kidd, at 40.
  15. Creek Nation, 295 U.S. at 112.
  16. United States v. Shoshone Tribe, 304 U.S. 111 (1938).
  17. Johansen, at 354.
  18. American Indian Policy in the Twentieth Century 46 and 46 n.18 (Vine Deloria ed. 1992).
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