United States v. Soldana

Background

Two men were indicted for bringing intoxicating liquor into what the law calls "Indian country" under a federal statute. The indictment said the liquor was introduced on the station platform at Crow Agency, which sits on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railway inside the Crow Reservation. The men argued the station platform was not part of the reservation; the District Court agreed and released them, and the Government appealed to the Supreme Court.

Reasoning

The Court examined whether the congressional laws that granted a railroad right of way through the reservation actually took the land out of the reservation and ended the Indians’ title. The opinion reviewed the Acts that authorized rights of way and required the railroad to respect Indians’ rights, plus a condition forbidding the railroad from helping to change or end Indian tenure. The Court said Congress did not intend to extinguish Indian title in the right-of-way strip, because doing so would divide and weaken the reservation and interfere with protections for the Indians. The Court distinguished earlier decisions that did extinguish title under different statutes and concluded the District Court’s dismissal was wrong.

Real world impact

As a result, land used for the railroad and its station platform at Crow Agency remains part of the Crow Reservation for purposes of the federal crime at issue, and the indictment may proceed. The decision makes clear that ordinary right-of-way grants do not automatically remove reservation land from tribal control or federal reservation rules.