Ex Parte Kan-Gi-Shun-Ca (Ex Parte Crow Dog)
United States Supreme Court
109 U.S. 556 (1883)
Crow Dog (defendant) and Spotted Tail were both members of the Brule Sioux tribe; on August 5, 1881, Crow Dog killed Spotted Tail, and the tribe initially handled the matter under its own customs. A federal agent later arrested Crow Dog, who was tried, convicted of murder, and sentenced to death in the federal district court for the Territory of Dakota; the territorial supreme court affirmed. Crow Dog petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for habeas corpus, arguing federal courts lacked jurisdiction under section 2146 of the Revised Statutes, which exempted Indian-on-Indian crimes from federal jurisdiction; the government countered that an 1868 treaty with the Sioux had repealed that exemption.
Whether federal courts have jurisdiction over a crime committed by one American Indian against another American Indian within Indian territory, where a federal statute exempts such crimes from federal jurisdiction but a later treaty arguably touches on Indian criminal responsibility.