Stockbridge-Munsee Community can't sue for New York lands

Thursday, July 25, 2013  

A federal judge said the Stockbridge-Munsee Community of Wisconsin waited too long to sue for its ancestral lands in New York.

The tribe sued the state in 1986 for lands that were taken during the 1800s. But Judge Lawrence Kahn said that was too long of a delay, citing the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Sherrill v. Oneida Nation, which led to the dismissal of other land claims in New York.

Some of the land that the Stockbridge-Munsee Community claims is also claimed by the Oneida Nation. Kahn said the Stockbridge-Munsees can't sue the Oneidas due to sovereign immunity.

Turtle Talk has posted documents from the case, Stockbridge-Munsee Community v. New York.

Get the Story:
Stockbridge-Munsee land claim against Oneida Indian Nation dismissed (The Syracuse Post-Standard 7/25)
Federal judge dismisses Wis. tribe's NY land claim (AP 7/25)