Red Bird v. United States
Headline: Court upholds that white people who married into the Cherokee Nation do not automatically get shares of tribal lands or funds, limiting distribution to treaty grantees, paid purchasers, or those on the official 1902 roll.
Holding: In this case, the Court held that white persons who intermarried into the Cherokee Nation did not automatically gain rights to the Nation’s communal lands or funds; only express grants, payment, or lawful enrollment on the 1902 roll conferred such property rights.
- Most white people who married into the Cherokee Nation cannot claim tribal land or fund shares.
- Only treaty grantees, those who paid for shares, or names on the 1902 roll may share.
- Official enrollment on the 1902 roll controls eligibility for allotment and distribution.
Summary
Background
This dispute arose because certain white persons who had married Cherokee citizens claimed the right to share in the Nation’s communal lands and funds. Treaties and the Cherokee constitution repeatedly described those lands as the common property of the Cherokee people. The Cherokee Nation’s laws and later Congressional acts — including a Cherokee code that briefly allowed purchase, a 1877 repeal of that purchase right, and the 1902 federal act creating an official enrollment roll — shaped who could be treated as entitled to participate in distribution.
Reasoning
The Court examined Cherokee treaties, the Nation’s constitution and statutes, and federal laws governing enrollment and allotment. It concluded that being a citizen under Cherokee law did not by itself create a right to a share of communal property. Property rights arose only by express treaty words, by payment and grant, or by being lawfully enrolled on the roll established for allotment. The Court relied on the Court of Claims’ findings and the text of the 1902 statute to hold that most intermarried white persons lacked a legal claim to Cherokee lands or vested funds.
Real world impact
As affirmed, most white persons who married into the Cherokee Nation cannot claim a share of tribal lands or trust funds unless they were specifically granted that right, paid for it, or appear on the approved 1902 roll. The ruling leaves questions about use or improvements to public domain separate from the right to share in communal property.
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