United States v. Creek Nation

Background

The Creek tribe sued the United States to recover payment for a strip of land that treaties had left with the tribe but that government surveys and later disposals put into other hands. An 1833 treaty gave the Creeks fee simple title; an 1866 treaty reserved the eastern half and required a dividing survey. A 1871 Bardwell survey marked that line, but an 1872 Darling survey and later Hackbusch work mistakenly extended Sac and Fox boundaries into the unceded Creek land. The government approved those surveys, and an 1891 law implementing a Sac and Fox cession led to allotments, patents, and sales that included most of the disputed strip. The Creeks sued in 1926 under a 1924 law allowing claims under treaties or Indian-affairs statutes to be heard.

Reasoning

The Court addressed whether Congress meant to allow such claims and when the United States effectively took the land. It held Congress intended the 1924 act to cover this dispute and that the United States, by carrying out the 1891 disposals and issuing patents, effectively appropriated the lands and therefore owed just compensation. The Court rejected the idea that the 1873 approval of a survey alone constituted a taking. It reversed the lower court’s award based on 1926 value and directed that compensation be measured at the time of the 1891 taking, with interest to produce the present equivalent, noting five percent per year as reasonable.

Real world impact

The ruling requires the federal government to pay tribes when official surveys and patents wrongly transfer tribal land, but measures compensation at the time of the government disposals rather than at the time a suit is filed. The decision will change valuation for similar historical land claims and sends the case back for recalculation of the award with interest.