A Native American tribe should be allowed to amend its claims that
Wyoming improperly levied vehicle and excise taxes in Indian country,
the 10th Circuit ruled.
The Northern Arapaho sued three Wyoming state and county officials in 2008, claiming that they had taxed tribe members in contravention of a state Supreme Court ruling that established the Wind River Indian Reservation as "Indian country."
The Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone share interest in the Wind River Reservation established in 1868 through a treaty between the Eastern Shoshone and the U.S. government.
In exchange for about 3 million acres of Wyoming land, the Eastern Shoshone handed over about 44 million acres in Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming.
The federal government moved the Northern Arapaho on the reservation in 1878, without the Eastern Shoshone's consent.
U.S. Indian Inspector James McLaughlin signed an agreement to open an additional 1.4 million acres of the tribes' land to settlement in exchange for sale proceeds and other benefits in 1904, which public law finalized in 1905.
The size of the reservation has remained largely unchanged since the 1950s, but some land ceded in the transaction was never formally restored to the tribes.
The Northern Arapaho claim the cession did not affect the land's status as Indian country. It also claims that the principles of collateral estoppel bar the state from relitigating the issue, saying that the Wyoming Supreme Court conclusively decided the status of the entire area with Big Horn I, a case that established the priority of water rights along the Big Horn River in 1988.
Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/10/25/51677.htm
The Northern Arapaho sued three Wyoming state and county officials in 2008, claiming that they had taxed tribe members in contravention of a state Supreme Court ruling that established the Wind River Indian Reservation as "Indian country."
The Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone share interest in the Wind River Reservation established in 1868 through a treaty between the Eastern Shoshone and the U.S. government.
In exchange for about 3 million acres of Wyoming land, the Eastern Shoshone handed over about 44 million acres in Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming.
The federal government moved the Northern Arapaho on the reservation in 1878, without the Eastern Shoshone's consent.
U.S. Indian Inspector James McLaughlin signed an agreement to open an additional 1.4 million acres of the tribes' land to settlement in exchange for sale proceeds and other benefits in 1904, which public law finalized in 1905.
The size of the reservation has remained largely unchanged since the 1950s, but some land ceded in the transaction was never formally restored to the tribes.
The Northern Arapaho claim the cession did not affect the land's status as Indian country. It also claims that the principles of collateral estoppel bar the state from relitigating the issue, saying that the Wyoming Supreme Court conclusively decided the status of the entire area with Big Horn I, a case that established the priority of water rights along the Big Horn River in 1988.
Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/10/25/51677.htm
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