FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1996 

STATEMENT BY LOIS J. SCHIFFER ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL
ENVIRONMENTAL AND NATURAL RESOURCES DIVISION ON
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR V. SOUTH DAKOTA 

The Justice Department is pleased that the Supreme Court has set aside the decision of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which invalidated the federal government's authority to take land into trust on behalf of Tribes and individual Indians. The Eighth Circuit's ruling struck down Section 5 of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (IRA) as an unconstitutional delegation of congressional authority, thereby calling into question more than 400 pending applications to take land into trust, and perhaps thousands of completed land acquisitions during the past 60 years covering an estimated nine million acres. 

The IRA is the cornerstone of modern federal law respecting Indians, and it has played a central role in promoting tribal self-government and economic self-sufficiency. For more than 60 years, Section 5 of that law has allowed the Secretary to restore or replace lands and related economic opportunities that Indians lost due to the failed "allotment" policies adopted at the close of the nineteenth century.

This case arose from a request by the Lower Brule Tribe that the Interior Department place into trust status a 91-acre parcel of land in central South Dakota. The State of South Dakota and the City of Oacoma opposed the request and sued to stop the government from taking the land into trust. 

In response to the Eighth Circuit's decision, the Department of the Interior issued new regulations implementing Section 5. In June 1996, the Solicitor General, on behalf of the Interior Department, requested the Supreme Court set aside the Eighth Circuit ruling and instruct the lower court to remand the proceeding to the Secretary for a new decision under these regulations. 

The Supreme Court's two-sentence order orders a remand as requested. If the Secretary issues a decision proposing to take the land into trust, South Dakota and Oacoma may seek judicial review of that decision if they bring a suit before the land is actually taken in trust, and in such a suit they may seek review of any remaining constitutional issues.

We are confident that the IRA will continue to play a vital role in promoting tribal self-government and economic self-sufficiency.

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