Now we’re down to the final four cases. Because of the strange and arbitrary way I did the seeding (the older the case, the higher the seed), some incredibly important cases never made it to the second or third rounds. But the greatest cases have a way of surviving. Let’s take a look at the tournament results overall so far (I’m not proficient enough to make brackets on this crappy blog interface, so sorry — just imagine the little lines…).
First Round
(1) Worcester v. Georgia defeats (32) Salazar v. Ramah Navajo Chapter — 139 to 9 votes
(16) Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez defeats (17) Washington v. Fishing Vessel Assn. — 87 to 57
(8) Arizona v. California I defeats (25) Iowa Mutual v. LaPlante — 80 to 62
(9) Menominee Tribe v. United States defeats (24) Oneida County v. Oneida Indian Nation — 104-35
(4) Talton v. Mayes defeats (29) Kiowa Tribe v. Manufacturing Technologies — 61 to 49
(20) Merrion v. Jicarilla Apache defeats (13) United States v. Mazurie — 94 to 7
(5) United States v. Winans defeats (28) Oklahoma Tax Commission v. Sac & Fox Nation — 54 to 44
(12) Morton v. Mancari defeats (21) New Mexico v. Mescalero Apache — 68 to 36
(3) Ex parte Crow Dog defeats (30) United States v. Lara — 65 to 47
(14) Bryan v. Itasca County defeats (19) United States v. Sioux Nation — 60 to 58
(6) Winters v. United States defeats (27) Miss. Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield — 82 to 34
(11) McClanahan v. Arizona State Tax Commission v. (22) United States v. Mitchell II — 93 to 29
(2) The Kansas Indians defeats (31) Cherokee Nation v. Leavitt — 61 to 21
(15) United States v. Wheeler defeats (18) White Mountain Apache Tribe v. Bracker — 57 to 32
(7) Williams v. Lee defeats (26) California v. Cabazon Band — 68 to 23
(23) Solem v. Bartlett defeats (10) Choctaw Nation v. Oklahoma — 41 to 40 (Ken Akini broke tie)
Octofinals
(1)Worcester v. Georgia defeats (16) Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez — 56 to 42
(9) Menominee Tribe v. United States defeats (8) Arizona v. California I — 47 to 44
(20) Merrion v. Jicarilla Apache defeats (4) Talton v. Mayes — 75 to 16
(12) Morton v. Mancari defeats (5) United States v. Winans — 61 to 34
(3) Ex parte Crow Dog defeats (14) Bryan v. Itasca County — 59 to 22
(6) Winters v. United States defeats (11) McClanahan v. Arizona State Tax Commission — 69 to 15
(15) United States v. Wheeler defeats (2) The Kansas Indians — 43 to 33
(7) Williams v. Lee defeats (23) Solem v. Bartlett — 70 to 10
Quarterfinals
(1) Worcester v. Georgia defeats (9) Menominee Tribe — 69 to 18
(20) Merrion v. Jicarilla Apache defeats (12) Morton v. Mancari — 55 to 33
(6) Winters v. United States defeats (3) Ex parte Crow Dog — 57 to 32
(7) Williams v. Lee defeats (15) United States v. Wheeler — 63 to 21
And that brings us to the semis:
Semifinal # 1
(1) Worcester v. Georgia versus (20) Merrion v. Jicarilla Apache Tribe
When we get down to these last few cases, I start to think — what could we as tribal advocates do without? I’m thinking with the rule in Worcester, now nothing more than a platonic backdrop of tribal authority that depends more on Congressional acts and treaties than on inherent authority, that we’ve done without Worcester in its purest form since 1835, when the Court totally ignored it in Mitchel v. United States. Could we do with0ut the power to tax and exclude, the Merrion holding? I think not.
Semifinal # 2
(6) Winters v. United States v. (7) Williams v. Lee
Charles Wilkinson famously called Williams the beginning of the modern era of federal Indian law. Williams resurrected whatever was left of Worcester and made it viable for the 20th century. Williams legitimized tribal courts (well, the idea of them anyway). Winters is water. Here in Michigan, I’d take Williams every day of the week. We have water here. Maybe in the west it’s a different story.
Turtle Talk 