User:Montanabw/Sioux lawsuits

{AfC article that needs a lot of work, I might do it eventually)

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Sioux lawsuits

The Sioux are a Native American tribe and First Nations people in North America. They originally lived at the source of the Great Mississippi basin where they lived from buffalo hunts on the back of their famous horses. But, like many other Native American indigenous people, the Sioux were forced to move westwards even before the first contact with the European colonists. They eventually settled into the Black Hills area and made it their home. Here they roamed the Great Plains until coming into conflict with the United States Government in the 19th century. Nowadays the Sioux still live on the Great Plains but their territory has decreased a lot. Life on the reservations isn’t always easy and many Sioux people dream back to the times that they owned the rich lands of the Black Hills, not having to justify themselves to the white men and that they could live their own lives. The glorious days of Standing Bear, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and Crazy Horse will never be relived by the Sioux, but that doesn’t mean they don’t try to get it back. Ever since they gained legal right the Sioux have been fighting to get their land back and their glorious culture restored. The most famous and successful example of this is the Black Hills land claim; a lawsuit that has been going on for years. Many other lawsuits followed, not all of them about land issues but al equally important to the Sioux.

Sioux reservations statistics

• The Sioux reservations yield 2,7 million acres of land.
• The largest reservation, Pine Ridge, yields 40.000 people.
• 35% of the people are under 18.
• 58% of the grandparents are responsible for raising their grandchildren.
• The Sioux have the lowest life expectancy of all of the ethnic groups in the U.S. 48 for men and 52 for women.
• Teenage suicide is 150% higher than any other average group.
• Infant mortality is 300 % higher.
• Almost 50% of the adults suffer addiction or disease.
• School dropout is over70%
• 61% of the persons under 18 live under Federal poverty level.
• 80% of the Pine Ridge residents are unemployed.
• 26% of the housing units on the reservations are mobile homes.
• There is an average of 17 people living in each family home.
• Alcohol affects 80% of the families.
• The death rate by alcoholism is 300% higher than the remaining U.S. population.

Law enforcement amongst the Sioux

The Sioux are ruled by an eighteen-member Tribal Council. The Executive Officers of the Council are the President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. The President and Vice-President are elected at large by voters to a term of office of 2 years; the Secretary and Treasurer are appointed by the Tribal Council. Primary elections are held in October and the General election in November. The Sioux Tribe maintains legal jurisdiction over all crimes committed on the reservation by tribal members, non-reservation Indians, and those willing to relinquish authority to the tribal courts. Felony crimes are outside their jurisdiction and are prosecuted by the FBI. In traditional Sioux society, law enforcement was performed by members of the warrior societies, such as the Kit Foxes, Badgers and Crow Owners, known as the akicitas. They maintained order in the camp and during communal buffalo hunts. Each band would appoint one society as the official akicita group for the year. This custom disappeared quickly after the Sioux were forced onto their reservations. Nowadays law enforcement on Sioux territory is provided by the tribal police, which is supplemented by personnel of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Sioux receive Federal funding in order to maintain this reservation police.

Lawsuits chronology

• 1775 Standing Bull and the rest of the Sioux reach the Black Hills after their move westwards

• 1787 Congress passes the Northwest Ordinance declaring that ‘the land and property of Indian tribes shall never be taken from them without their consent’

• 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty: the United States recognize that the Sioux own 60 million acres of land. Powder River and Big Horn which were originally Sioux territories are assigned to other tribes

• 1868 The 1868 Treaty establishes the Great Sioux Reservation as the permanent home of the Sioux Nation.

• 1874 The discovery of gold in the Black Hills.

• 1877 The Congressional Act of February 28, 1877 officially takes away a large part of the Sioux land and extinguishes all Sioux rights outside the Great Sioux Reservation.

• 1883 The Supreme Court rules that Indian against Indian crimes are under jurisdiction of the tribes.

• 1883 The Indian Offence Act makes the practice of Indian Religion a crime

• 1889 The Unites States and the Sioux sign an agreement in which the Great Sioux Reservation is broken up into 6 reservations and reduces Sioux land holdings.

• 1903 The Supreme Court confirms that Congress has authority to break previous Indian treaties.

• 1920 A jurisdictional Act authorizes the Court of Claims to adjusticate tribes’ legal claims against the Unites States.

• 1922 Ralph Case and associates are hired as counsel by the Sioux tribes to file claims against the United States.

• 1923 24 Sioux claims are filed in the Court of Claims, only one is recognized: the Black Hills claim.

• 1942-1973 Several Court houses dismiss the Black Hills Claim.

• 1968 The American Indian Movement is founded. The organization is formed to address various issues, including poverty, housing, treaty issues, and police harassment

• 1972 The Trail of Broken Treaties; a cross-country protest to raise awareness for American-Indian issues like treaty-rights and living standards. A large caravan moves towards Washington.

• 1974 Indian Claims Court awards $ 15,7 million plus interest in the Black Hills case.

• 1976 Congress enacts the American Indian Religion Freedom Act. This finally provided the American Indians the freedom to practice their own religion.

• 1977 Mario Gonzalez starts working on the Black Hills case. He is the first Sioux ever to practice law.

• 1980 Supreme Court affirms Court of Claims ruling in the Black Hills case and awards $106 million. The Sioux refuse to take the money.

• 1996 The last and most important amendment of the Sioux Law and Order Code.
• 2000 Crazy Horse files a federal lawsuit to stop beer brewers using his name to promote and sell malt beer.
• 2000 Two court cases to protect Sioux burial grounds resulted into a balancing act in order to maintain the water levels at Lake Ohe.

• 2005 Three federal judges rule that South Dakota is violating the Voting Rights Act. South Dakota has to submit a new law to review voter district boundaries and they should listen to the Sioux since it is affecting their voting boundaries.

• 2008 The Sioux file a lawsuit against Keystone XL in order to stop a pipeline crossing their treaty lands.
• 2009 The Keystone XL lawsuit is dismissed.

• 2009 Some Sioux tribes buy back some of the lands that were taken from them during the Black Hills treaties by the United States. Many other tribes don’t agree.

• 2010 The United States department of health sues the Oglala Sioux tribe because they failed to live up to the grants requirements for the health program grants the Sioux received in 2002.

• 2011 The Spirit Lake Sioux tribe is suing the NCAA for the use of Indian nicknames and emblems by athletic teams.

• 2011 The Sioux are suing beer brewers for the sale of beer just outside the reservation while alcohol is forbidden on the reservation.

• 2012 The Sioux demand federal action in the resolving of unresolved homicides.

• 2012 Most Sioux tribes still refuse to take the Black Hills lawsuit money because they feel that the Black Hills were never for sale.

References

• Lazarus, E (1991). "Black Hills, White Justice, The Sioux nation versus the United States, 1775"
• Stephanie M. Schwartz, 2005 http://www.linkcenterfoundation.org/id24.html
• Royal B. Hassrick: The Sioux: Life and Customs of a Warrior Society, p. 16, University of Oklahoma Press (1988) ISBN 978-0-8061-2140-6
• Vine Deloria, Clifford M. Lytle: American Indians, American Justice, p. 183, University of Texas Press (1983) ISBN 978-0-292-73834-8
• www.narf.org
• www.indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com
• http://64.38.12.138/News/2012/004338.asp