Seymour v. Superintendent of Washington State Penitentiary

Background

Paul Seymour was charged with burglary in Okanogan County, Washington, pleaded guilty to attempted burglary, and was sentenced to seven and one-half years. He filed a state habeas petition claiming he was an enrolled, unemancipated member of the Colville Tribe and that the burglary occurred on reservation land, so only federal courts could try him under federal law. The trial court found he was a Colville member but held that the South Half of the Colville Reservation had been dissolved by a 1906 Act and a 1916 proclamation, and the Washington Supreme Court denied his petition.

Reasoning

The key question was whether the South Half of the Colville Reservation still existed and therefore whether the land was "Indian country" under the federal statute defining that term. The Court examined the 1906 Act, the 1892 Act, later congressional statutes recognizing the reservation, and federal agency practice. It concluded the 1906 Act did not abolish the reservation, that Congress repeatedly treated the South Half as still reserved, and that the federal definition of Indian country includes land within a reservation "notwithstanding the issuance of any patent." The Court rejected the State’s arguments that individual patents or a government townsite removed land from the reservation.

Real world impact

Because the burglary occurred within the reservation limits, Washington courts had no authority to try Seymour for that offense, and the Court reversed and sent the case back for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. The decision protects the federal status of the reservation land and limits state criminal authority over enrolled Colville tribal members for crimes committed on that land.