Nebraska v. Parker
United States Supreme Court
136 S. Ct. 1072 (2016)
After earlier cessions, an 1882 act let the Secretary of the Interior sell surplus Omaha Tribe reservation land west of a railroad line to non-Indian settlers, with proceeds going to the tribe; most of that land was ultimately sold to nonmembers, and the town of Pender grew up there. For over a century, few tribe members lived on the west side and the tribe did not enforce tribal law there — until 2006, when it began enforcing a liquor-licensing ordinance against Pender businesses (plaintiffs/interveners included Nebraska and the U.S.). Pender businesses sued tribal officials (defendants), arguing Pender fell outside the reservation. The lower courts held the 1882 act had not diminished the reservation, and the Supreme Court granted review.
Whether a surplus-land act that opens reservation land to non-Indian settlement diminishes the reservation's boundaries in the absence of language showing unequivocal congressional intent to do so.