Arthur Lazarus Jr. (August 30, 1926 – July 27, 2019) was an American lawyer primarily known for his work with American Indian tribes and Alaska Native corporations. His clients included the

Blackfeet The Blackfeet Nation ( bla, Aamsskáápipikani, script=Latn, ), officially named the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana, is a federally recognized tribe of Siksikaitsitapi people with an Indian reservation in Mont ...

Tuscarora Tuscarora may refer to the following: First nations and Native American people and culture * Tuscarora people **''Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation'' (1960) * Tuscarora language, an Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people * ...

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

, and

Navajo The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest fe ...

. His best-known case was the

Black Hills Land Claim The Black Hills land claim is an ongoing land dispute between Native Americans from the Sioux Nation and the United States government over the Black Hills mountain range in the US states of South Dakota and Wyoming. The land in question was pled ...

on behalf of the

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota language, Dakota: Help:IPA, /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes and First Nations in Canada, First Nations peoples in North America. The ...

Biography

Arthur Lazarus was born August 30, 1926, in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and attended

Poly Prep Poly Prep Country Day School (commonly known as Poly Prep) is an independent, co-educational day school with two campuses in Brooklyn, New York, United States. The Middle School (5th to 8th grades) and Upper School (9th to 12th grades) are locat ...

. He was graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

in 1946 and

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...

in 1949. At Columbia, he was editor of the

Columbia Daily Spectator The ''Columbia Daily Spectator'' (known colloquially as the ''Spec'') is the student newspaper of Columbia University. Founded in 1877, it is the oldest continuously operating college news daily in the nation after ''The Harvard Crimson'', and has ...

, although publication was not daily to conserve resources for the war. Future beat poet

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Genera ...

was one of his roommates at Columbia. His entrance to the bar was, however, delayed by his conscientious objector status during the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top: ...

. Eventually he joined the Washington office of the

law firm A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to ...

of Riegelman, Strasser, Schwarz & Spiegelberg (now known as

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP (known as Fried Frank), is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. The firm also has offices in Washington, D.C., London, Frankfurt, and Brussels, and has more than 500 attorneys w ...

) as an associate, where he worked with Felix S. Cohen, then the preëminent lawyer for Indian tribes. Lazarus and

Richard Schifter Richard Schifter (July 31, 1923October 4, 2020) was an Austrian-American attorney and diplomat who served as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs from 1985 to 1992. Early life and education Richard Schifter w ...

took over the firm's Indian law practice when Cohen died in 1953 at the age of 46. In his first appearance before the Supreme Court, he represented the Tuscarora Nation in its unsuccessful attempt to stop eminent domain seizure of reservation land for a reservoir. Lazarus was also the attorney for the Seneca Nation in its fight against the

Kinzua Dam The Kinzua Dam, on the Allegheny River in Warren County, Pennsylvania, is one of the largest dams in the United States east of the Mississippi River. It is located within the Allegheny National Forest. The dam is located east of Warren, Penns ...

and the

Southern Tier Expressway New York State Route 17 (NY 17) is a major state highway that extends for through the Southern Tier and Downstate regions of New York in the United States. It begins at the Pennsylvania state line in Mina and follows the Southern ...

. He was the final attorney of record in ''

United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians ''United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians'', 448 U.S. 371 (1980), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that: 1) the enactment by Congress of a law allowing the Sioux Nation to pursue a claim against the United States tha ...

,'' the longest-running case in American legal history, and the largest Indian claims judgment ever awarded against the United States. He was also responsible for drafting the Native Alaskans’ proposed version of the

Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971, constituting at the time the largest land claims settlement in United States history. ANCSA was intended to resolve long-standin ...

Black Hills Case

The legal struggle for the Black Hills land claim began in the early 1920s under tribal lawyer Richard Case where he argued that the 1877 Act of February was illegal and that the United States never made a legitimate purchase of the land.Lazarus, Black Hills/White Justice, 176-188. Tribal Lawyers Marvin Sonosky and Arthur Lazarus took over the case in 1956 until they won in 1980.Stuart Taylor Jr, “Big Wampum for a Legal Tribe,” ''New York Times'', May 31, 1981, https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/31/business/big-wampum-for-a-legal-tribe.htmllawyer. The United States Court of Claims on June 13, 1979, in a 5-2 majority, decided that the 1877 Act that seized the Black Hills from the Sioux was a violation of the Fifth Amendment.Lazarus, ''Black Hills/White Justice'', 374-375. On July 31, 1979, the Sioux were awarded $17.5 million with 5 percent interest totaling $105 million. However, the victory was short lived. The Indians residing in the Black Hills feared the notion that if they accept the award their land would be officially sold. This led many Sioux to believe that they would lose their land, culture and identity.Lazarus,''Black Hills/White Justice'', 375-376. Furthermore, the two lawyers continued to work with the government to provide the tribe with just compensation for violating the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. In September 1979, Sonosky and Lazarus offered the tribe $44 million as a settlement for the violation in 1868, but were met with hostility.Lazarus, ''Black Hills/White Justice'', 377. On October 17, 1979, Solicitor General Wade McCree of the Justice Department sent an appeal to the United States Supreme Court over the initial ruling by the Court of Claims and on November 21, 1979, the Supreme Court set a date to review the claim and on December 10, the appeal was granted.Lazarus, ''Black Hills/White Justice'', 378-379. The Supreme Court case ''

'' was argued on March 24, 1980.''United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians'', 448 U.S. 371 (1980), http://campus.westlaw.com. On June 30, 1980, the United States Supreme Court ruled in an 8-1 majority to uphold the United States Court of Claims’ initial ruling, awarding the Sioux nation $106 million, which resulted in the largest sum ever given to an Indian tribe for illegally seized territory.

Post Black Hills

In 1991 Lazarus retired from Fried, Frank, which was closing its Indian law practice while expanding further into lucrative work in Mergers and Acquisitions. ''Black Hills,'' Chapter 17 Shortly afterwards he became “of counsel” a
Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, & Endreson
a law firm specializing in Indian Law. He retired in July 2011.

References

External links

The Arthur Lazarus Papers
at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University {{DEFAULTSORT:Lazarus, Arthur Jr. 1926 births 2019 deaths American civil rights lawyers People associated with Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson Columbia College (New York) alumni Yale Law School alumni Lawyers from Brooklyn Conscientious objectors Poly Prep alumni