Diminishment is the legal process by which the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...
can reduce the size of an
Indian reservation
An Indian reservation is an area of land held and governed by a federally recognized Native American tribal nation whose government is accountable to the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs and not to the state government in which it ...
.
History
In 1984, the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
held in ''
Solem v. Bartlett'', 465 U.S. 463 (1984), that "only Congress may diminish the boundaries of an Indian reservation, and its intent to do so must be clear."
[''Nebraska v. Parker'']
No. 14–1406
577 U.S. ____ (2016). This was noted in the Court's 2016 case ''
Nebraska v. Parker'', 577 U.S. ___ (2016), in which the Court held that an 1882 Act passed by Congress did not diminish the
Omaha Reservation.
The ''Solem'' case established a "diminishment doctrine" that U.S. courts could use when evaluating whether diminishment had taken place.
[Solem V. Bartlett , ENRD , Department of Justice](_blank)
/ref>
In the 1994 case ''Hagen v. Utah
Hagen () is the 41st-largest city in Germany. The municipality is located in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne and Volme (me ...
'', 510 U.S. 399 (1994), the Supreme Court held that Congress's 1902 Act had diminished the Uintah Reservation.[Hagen v. Utah, 510 U.S. 399 (1994).](_blank)
/ref> The Court applied its doctrine established in the ''Solem'' case.
See also
* Dawes Act
The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887) regulated land rights on tribal territories within the United States. Named after Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, it authorized the Pres ...
* Curtis Act
The Curtis Act of 1898 was an amendment to the United States Dawes Act; it resulted in the break-up of tribal governments and communal lands in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indian Territory: the Choctaw, Chickasaw ...
* Checkerboarding (land)
Checkerboarding refers to a situation where land ownership is intermingled between two or more owners, resulting in a checkerboard pattern. Checkerboarding is prevalent in the Western United States and Western Canada because of extensive use i ...
* Diminished value
* Diminished responsibility
In criminal law, diminished responsibility (or diminished capacity) is a potential defense by excuse by which defendants argue that although they broke the law, they should not be held fully criminally liable for doing so, as their mental func ...
* Off-reservation trust land
In the United States, off-reservation trust land refers to real estate outside an Indian reservation that is held by the Interior Department for the benefit of a Native American tribe or a member of a tribe. Typical uses of off-reservation trust ...
* Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations
* Eminent domain in the United States
* Indian old field
Indian Old Field, or simply Old Field, was a common term used in Colonial American times and up until the early nineteenth century United States, by American explorers, surveyors, cartographers and settlers, in reference to land formerly cleared a ...
Notes
Diminishment commonly refers to the reduction in size of a reservation. A finding of diminishment generally suggests that a discrete, easily identifiable parcel of land has been removed from reservation status.
References
Legal terminology
American Indian reservations
Aboriginal title in the United States
United States federal Indian policy
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