Here are the materials in Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin v. United States.
Supreme Court Merits Briefs
Cert Stage Briefs
D.C. Circuit Materials
District Court Materials
DCT Order Dismissing Menominee Claims
Menominee Motion for Summary J
Earlier D.C. Circuit Materials
Here is the opinion.
An excerpt:
This is the eleventh appeal to this court in nearly two decades of litigation arising out of the Department of the Interior’s misadministration of Native American trust accounts and an ensuing complex, nationwide litigation and settlement. As the case winds down, the class action representatives have appealed the district court’s denial of compensation for expenses incurred during the litigation and settlement process.
We affirm the district court’s denial of additional compensation for expenses for the lead plaintiff, Elouise Cobell, because the district court expressly wrapped those costs into an incentive award given to her earlier. We conclude, however, that the district court erred in categorically rejecting as procedurally barred the class representatives’ claim for the recovery of third-party payments, and remand for the district court to apply its accumulated expertise and discretion to the question of whether third-party compensation can and should be paid under the Settlement Agreement.
Briefs here.
Lower court materials here.
Here is the state’s opening brief in State of Alaska v. Akiachak Native Community:
2015-08-24 AK appeal brief vs Akiachak
Lower court materials here.
Here is the order list. From the order list:
The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted limited to the following question: Whether the D. C. Circuit misapplied this Court’s Holland decision when it ruled that the Tribe was not entitled to equitable tolling of the statute of limitations for filing of Indian Self-Determination Act claims under the Contract Disputes Act?
Here is the opinion in Leneuoti Tuaua v. United States.
An excerpt:
As even the dissent to Elk recognized, “it would be obviously inconsistent with the semi-independent character of such a tribe, and with the obedience they are expected to render to their tribal head, that they should be vested with the complete rights—or, on the other, subjected to the full responsibilities—of American citizens. It would not for a moment be contended that such was the effect of this amendment.” Id. at 119–20 (Harlan, J., dissenting). Even assuming a background context grounded in principles of jus soli, we are skeptical the framers plainly intended to extend birthright citizenship to distinct, significantly self-governing political territories within the United States’s sphere of sovereignty—even where, as is the case with American Samoa, ultimate governance remains statutorily vested with the United States Government. See Downes, 182 U.S. at 305 (White, J., concurring) (doubting citizenship naturally and inevitably extends to an acquired territory regardless of context).
I would have thought (hoped) that the rule of Elk v. Wilkins had faded into meaninglessness, but here it is again.
Another excerpt:
At base Appellants ask that we forcibly impose a compact of citizenship—with its concomitant rights, obligations, and implications for cultural identity12—on a distinct and unincorporated territory of people, in the absence of evidence that a majority of the territory’s inhabitants endorse such a tie and where the territory’s democratically elected representatives actively oppose such a compact.
That footnote 12 in bold? Here:
See also, e.g., Robert B. Porter, The Demise of the Ongwehoweh and the Rise of the Native Americans: Redressing the Genocidal Act of Forcing American Citizenship Upon Indigenous Peoples, 15 HARV. BLACKLETTER L.J. 107, 169 (1999) (arguing that statutorily “[f]orcing American citizenship upon Indigenous [Native American] people [destructively] transformed [their] political identity”).
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