United States Eighth Circuit

In an action by the Yankton Sioux Tribe seeking a declaratory judgment that all land not ceded to the U.S. in 1894 remained part of the Sioux Reservation under the jurisdiction of the Tribe and the federal government, the district court's order that some 37,600 acres of trust land remained part of the reservation and that land continuously owned in fee by individual Indians also qualified as reservation is affirmed in part where: 1) defendants' evidence was not truly "new" in the sense that it could not have reasonably been developed and presented in earlier stages of this litigation; 2) it was clear from the circumstances surrounding the Tribe's agreement to sell its surplus lands that the Tribe did not intend to relinquish immediate jurisdiction over the allotments and that it would not be required to part with them; and 3) the district court did not err in its conclusion that all lands taken into trust by the Secretary of the Interior fell within the jurisdiction of the Yankton Sioux Reservation and qualified as Indian country under 18 U.S.C. section 1151(a). However, the order is vacated in part where a number of potentially important facts were missing with respect to Indian owned fee lands continuously held by tribal members.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/06/2010
• Published 05/06/2010

Judges

• Before MURPHY, MELLOY, and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Pamela H. Hein, Dee Mulder, Lake Andes, SD, Tom D. Tobin, Winner, SD, for Charles Mix County., John P. Guhin, Deputy Attorney General, Meghan N. Dilges, Asst. Attorney General, Pierre, SD, for State of South Dakota., Mark E. Salter, AUSA, Sioux Falls, SD, for United States of America., Rebecca L. Kidder, Charles Abourezk, Rapid City, SD, for Yankton Sioux Tribe., Eric John Antoine, Rosebud, SD, Terry L. Pechota, Rapid City, SD, on the amicus briefs, for Rosebud Sioux Tribe., Timothy R. Whalen, on the amicus brief, Lake Andes, SD, for The Frank Soukup Family Limited Partnership, Mark Van Duysen, and Dan Cimpl., Kenneth Wayne Cotton, on the amicus brief, Wagner, SD, for Southern Missouri Waste Management District., Scott J. Podhradsky, on the amicus brief, Wagner, SD, for Wagner Community School District No. 11-4., Michael James Whalen, on the amicus brief, Rapid City, SD, for Charles Mix Electric Association., Sandy Steffen, Gregory, SD, Susan W. Phalke, Winner, SD, Michael B. Strain, White River, SD, Gay K. Tollefson, Martin, SD, on the amicus briefs, for Tripp County, Gregory County, Mellette County and Bennett County, SD., Craig Parkhurst, on the amicus brief, Armour, SD, for Cities Dante, Geddes, Lake Andes, Pickstown Platte, Rivinia and Wagner.