Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock

The Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache tribes signed an 1892 treaty allotting each member 160 acres while the government purchased and reallocated nearly 3 million remaining acres to non-Indians; tribal leaders' negotiated changes were promised but never actually included in the final treaty. Lone Wolf (plaintiff), a tribal leader, sued the Secretary of the Interior (defendant) to block the ratifying bill, arguing the land sale was an unconstitutional taking under the Fifth Amendment, and lower courts denied relief.