Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock

SCOTUSCase
Litigants=Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock
ArgueDate=October 23
ArgueYear=1902
DecideDate=January 5
DecideYear=1903
FullName= Lone Wolf, Principal Chief of the Kiowas, "et al"., Appellants.,v.Ethan A. Hitchcock, Secretary of the Interior, "et al", Appellees.
USVol=187
USPage=553
Citation=187 U.S. 553, 23 S.Ct. 216, 47 L.Ed. 299
Prior=19 App. D. C. 315
Subsequent=
Holding=Congress has plenary power to unilaterally abrogate treaty obligations between the United States and Native American tribes.
SCOTUS=1902-1903
Majority=White
JoinMajority=Brewer, Brown, Fuller, Holmes, Peckham, McKenna, Shiras
Concurrence/Dissent=Harlan
JoinConcurrence/Dissent=
LawsApplied=U.S. Constitution, Article V

"Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock", ussc|187|553|1903 is a United States Supreme Court decision which declared that the "plenary power" of the United States Congress gave it authority to unilaterally abrogate treaty obligations between the United States and Native American tribes. The decision marked a departure from the holdings of "Cherokee Nation v. Georgia", ussc|30|1|1831, and "Worcester v. Georgia", ussc|31|515|1832, which had given greater respect to the autonomy of Native American tribes.

Facts

In 1867 the United States and the Kiowa and Comanche tribes entered into the first of three treaties collectively referred to as the Medicine Lodge Treaty. The treaties created a reservation for their use, and were eventually joined by the Plains Apache, Southern Cheyenne, and Southern Arapaho tribes.

The treaty required the approval of three-fourths of adult males on the reservation in order to for any portion of the reservation to be ceded.

Thereafter, Congress modified how the treaty alloted land without obtaining consent as provided for in the treaty, effectively removing millions of acres of land from the reservation.

Holding

The Court held that Congress had the authority to void treaty obligations with Native American tribes because it had an inherent "plenary power":

The decision was based, among other things, on a paternalistic view of the United States' relationship with the tribes:

Many other treaties between Native American tribes and the United States were unilaterally modified by Congress in subsequent years, in part relying on the decision in "Lone Wolf".

ee also

* Lone Wolf, the Chief who sued the United States in "Lone Wolf v. Hutchinson".
* Medicine Lodge Treaty
* List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 187

Further reading

*cite book |title=Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock: Treaty Rights and Indian Law at the End of the Nineteenth Century |last=Clark |first=Blue |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=1994 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |series=Law in the American West |volume=5 |location=Lincoln |isbn=0803214669 |pages=

External links

* [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=187&invol=553 Text of the opinion]