DOJ submits brief for Osage Reservation diminishment case

Thursday, June 2, 2011  

The Department of Justice is urging the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear Osage Nation v. Irby, a reservation diminishment case.

Congress created a reservation for the Osage Nation of Oklahoma in 1872. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an allotment act in 1906 diminished the reservation.

Government attorneys say it's "unclear" whether Congress disestablished the reservation. But they still don't think the case should be heard out of fear it could affect case law in diminishment cases.

"The unique statutory and historical circumstances of Oklahoma tribes in general, and the Osage Nation in particular, make this case an especially poor vehicle for addressing issues of reservation disestablishment, which are inherently statute-specific and fact-bound in any event," DOJ wrote in the brief.

The Supreme Court has not heard a diminishment case since the mid-1990s.

Get the Story:
Osage continue tax fight: Tribe contends reservation never disestablished (The Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise 6/1)

10th Circuit Decision:
Osage Nation v. Irby (March 5, 2010)

Related Stories:
Osage Nation optimistic as high court weighs reservation case (2/23)
Supreme Court asks DOJ for views in Osage diminishment case (2/22)