Manuscripts Collection
On May 7, 1923 the Dakota Indians (known at the time as the Sioux Tribe of Indians) filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Claims claiming the government had failed to fulfill its obligations arising from various treaties, acts, and other legal agreements, particularly the treaties of September 17, 1851 (known as the Treaty of Laramie) and April 18,1861, the Agreement of September 26, 1876, and the Act of March 2, 1889. After years of fruitless efforts to compel the United States government to redress their grievances, The Sioux Jurisdictional Act, passed by Congress in June of 1920, had finally allowed the tribes to present their evidence in the Court of Claims. The petition, filed on behalf of the tribe by attorney Ralph Case, outlined twenty-four "contentions," including claims for cut hay and timber, unconstructed schools and houses, insufficient rations and clothing, and undelivered seeds and tools, as well as the misappropriation of tribal funds. The centerpiece of the petition was the demand for restitution for the seizure of Dakota lands, particularly the Black Hills area of South Dakota.
After the petition was filed, the government began putting together evidence for its defense. The General Accounting Office was asked to prepare a report in order to "render an accounting and discuss the various transactions under all treaties, agreements, acts of Congress, and Executive orders applicable to plaintiffs." Begun in January 1925, the report was not completed until 1932. It became the basis for the government's claim that it had been more than generous to the Dakota.
Thirty years after the petition was filed, the results of the legal battle were not encouraging. By then the Dakota had lost every claim but the one still pending: the Black Hills claim. In 1980, after a tortuous journey ending ultimately in the Supreme Court, the Dakota finally prevailed, winning the largest Indian claims judgment ever. The Dakota, however, never touched the money, having decided to settle for nothing less than the return of the Black Hills land itself.
Information was taken from the report and from the book
The report, originally published in eight volumes, summarizes each of the twenty-four claims or "contentions" put forth in the petition filed by the Dakota in 1923 and details the disbursements and land transactions the government cites as evidence of fulfillment of its obligations to the Dakota under the terms of the various treaties, acts, and agreements.
Additional information and other related documents can be found in record groups 75 (Bureau of Indian Affairs) and 123 (U.S. Court of Claims) of the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C.
Additional information and other related documents can also be found in the Ralph Case Papers, located at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, South Dakota.
Accession number: 15,606
Processed by: Lara D. Friedman~Shedlov, November 2001
Catalog ID number: 09-00322819
This document is a copy of a report which forms part of National Archives Record Group 123, Records of the United States Court of Claims, General Jurisdiction Case No. C-531.
Includes contentions nos. 1-4 of the Sioux Tribe of Indians.
Includes contentions nos. 4-17 of the Sioux Tribe of Indians, contentions no. 1-7 of the Sioux Tribe of Indians of the the Santee Reservation (Nebraska), and contentions no. 1-4 of the Sioux Tribe of Indians of the Rosebud Reservation (South Dakota).
Includes contention no. 5 of the Sioux Tribe of Indians of the Rosebud Reservation (South Dakota), contentions no. 1 and 2 of the Sioux Tribe of Indians of the Pine Ridge Reservation (South Dakota), contentions no. 1 and 2 of the Sioux Tribe of Indians of the Crow Creek Reservation (South Dakota), contentions no. 1 and 2 of the Sioux Tribe of Indians of the Lower Brule Reservation (South Dakota), contentions no. 1 and 2 of the Sioux Tribe of Indians of the Cheyenne River Reservation (South Dakota), contentions nos. 1-3 of the Sioux Tribe of Indians of the Standing Rock Reservation (North Dakota), and detailed explanations of disbursements made by the United States to the Sioux Tribe of Indians under various treaties.
Includes detailed explanations of disbursements made by the United States to the Sioux Tribe of Indians under various treaties, acts, and appropriations, disbursements made by the United States in payment of claims arising from depredations committed by Sioux Indians, census data on Indians during the period 1861 to 1925, and detailed explanations of land transactions involving lands claimed or occupied by the Sioux.