Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-9526_9okb.pdf
Page Number: 48

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

3 

ROBERTS, C. J., dissenting 

&  Pacific  R.  Co.  v.  Mingus,  165  U. S.  413,  436  (1897). 
The  Five  Tribes  also  enjoyed  unique  property  rights.
While many tribes held only a “right of occupancy” on lands
owned by the United States, United States v. Creek Nation, 
295 U. S. 103, 109 (1935), each of the Five Tribes possessed 
title to its lands in communal fee simple, meaning the lands
were “considered the property of the whole.”  E.g., Treaty
with the Creeks, Arts. III and IV, Feb. 14, 1833, 7 Stat. 419; 
see Marlin, 276 U. S., at 60.  Congress promised the Tribes
that  their  lands  would  never  be  “included  within,  or  an-
nexed  to,  any  Territory  or  State,”  see,  e.g.,  Treaty  with
Creeks and Seminoles, Art. IV, Aug. 7, 1856, 11 Stat. 700
(1856 Treaty), and that their new homes would be “forever
secure,” Indian Removal Act, §3, 4 Stat. 412; see also Treaty
with the Creeks, Arts. I and XIV, Mar. 24, 1832, 7 Stat. 368. 
Forever, it turns out, did not last very long, because the
Civil  War  disrupted  both  relationships  and  borders.  The 
Five Tribes, whose members collectively held at least 8,000 
slaves, signed treaties of alliance with the Confederacy and 
contributed forces to fight alongside Rebel troops.  See Gib-
son, Native Americans and the Civil War, 9 Am. Indian Q. 
4, 385, 388–389, 393 (1985); Doran, Negro Slaves of the Five 
Civilized  Tribes,  68  Annals  Assn.  Am.  Geographers  335, 
346–347, and Table 3 (1978); Cohen §4.07(1)(a), at 289.  Af-
ter the war, the United States and the Tribes formed new 
treaties,  which  required  each  Tribe  to  free  its  slaves  and 
allow them to become tribal citizens.  E.g., Treaty with the 
Creek  Indians,  Art.  II,  June  14,  1866,  14  Stat.  786  (1866
Treaty); see Cohen §4.07(1)(a), at 289, and n. 9.  The trea-
ties also stated that the Tribes had “ignored their allegiance
to  the  United  States”  and  “unsettled  the  [existing]  treaty 
relations,” thereby rendering themselves “liable to forfeit” 
all “benefits and advantages enjoyed by them”—including
their lands.  E.g., 1866 Treaty, Preamble, 14 Stat. 785.  Due 
to “said liabilities,” the treaties departed from prior prom-
ises and required each Tribe to give up the “west half ” of its