US Supreme Court decision City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of N. Y., 544 U.S. 197, most recent direct reference of the Doctrine of Discovery by US Supreme Court
March 29, 2005
The Oneida Indian Nation Seal
As reported by Rebecca Nagle (Cherokee):
The Doctrine of Discovery was cited by a U.S. Appeals Court as recently as 2014 and by the Supreme Court as recently as 2005. That Supreme Court decision, City of Sherrill v. Oneida Nation of Indians, was authored by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. After the Oneida Nation bought back land that had been illegally ceded to the state of New York, the city of Sherrill wanted the tribe to pay property taxes. In City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York the Supreme Court ruled that the disputed land could not be placed back under the tribe’s jurisdiction because it had been taken so long ago and it would cause too much of a disruption to change it now. Writing for the majority, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told a distorted history, claiming “it was not until lately that the Oneidas sought to regain ancient sovereignty over land converted from wilderness to become part of cities like Sherrill.” Now, it was too late, she opined, for the tribe to “rekindle the embers of sovereignty that long ago grew cold.”
In the first footnote of her decision, Ginsburg cited the Doctrine of Discovery stating “…the lands occupied by Indians when the colonists arrived became vested in the sovereign – first the discovering European nation and later the original States and the United States.”
The Doctrine of Discovery was cited by a U.S. Appeals Court as recently as 2014 and by the Supreme Court as recently as 2005. That Supreme Court decision, City of Sherrill v. Oneida Nation of Indians, was authored by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. After the Oneida Nation bought back land that had been illegally ceded to the state of New York, the city of Sherrill wanted the tribe to pay property taxes. In City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York the Supreme Court ruled that the disputed land could not be placed back under the tribe’s jurisdiction because it had been taken so long ago and it would cause too much of a disruption to change it now. Writing for the majority, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told a distorted history, claiming “it was not until lately that the Oneidas sought to regain ancient sovereignty over land converted from wilderness to become part of cities like Sherrill.” Now, it was too late, she opined, for the tribe to “rekindle the embers of sovereignty that long ago grew cold.”
In the first footnote of her decision, Ginsburg cited the Doctrine of Discovery stating “…the lands occupied by Indians when the colonists arrived became vested in the sovereign – first the discovering European nation and later the original States and the United States.”