Oneida Indian Nation of NY v. Madison County

605 F.3d 149, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 8643
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedApril 27, 2010
DocketDocket 05-6408-cv (L), 06-5168-cv (CON), 06-5515-cv (CON)
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 605 F.3d 149 (Oneida Indian Nation of NY v. Madison County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oneida Indian Nation of NY v. Madison County, 605 F.3d 149, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 8643 (2d Cir. 2010).

Opinions

Judge CABRANES, joined by Judge HALL, concurs in a separate opinion.

SACK, Circuit Judge:

This appeal is but the latest chapter in a lengthy dispute over the payment of state and local taxes by the plaintiff-appellee Oneida Indian Nation of New York (the “OIN”). The Supreme Court most recently addressed the OIN’s tax obligations in City of Sherrill, N.Y. v. Oneida Indian Nation of N.Y., 544 U.S. 197, 125 S.Ct. 1478, 161 L.Ed.2d 386 (2005) {“Sherrill”). The Court rejected the OIN’s contention that parcels of lands allegedly within the boundaries of an Indian reservation once occupied by the Oneidas, which were sold to non-Indians during the early 19th century and bought back by the OIN on the open market in the 1990s, thereby came under the sovereign dominion of the OIN and were therefore exempt from municipal taxation.1 The OIN nonetheless now seeks to enjoin the defendants-appellants Madison and Oneida Counties (the “Counties”) from foreclosing on this property for nonpayment of county taxes. On cross-motions for summary judgment brought in both of the cases that are consolidated on this appeal, the district court ruled in favor of the OIN. See Oneida Indian Nation v. Oneida County, 432 F.Supp.2d 285, 292 (N.D.N.Y.2006) (“Oneida County ”); Oneida Indian Nation of N.Y. v. Madison County, 401 F.Supp.2d 219, 232-33 (N.D.N.Y.2005) (“Madison County”). We affirm on the ground that the OIN is immune from suit under the long-standing doctrine of tribal sovereign immunity. The remedy of foreclosure is therefore not available to the Counties.

The Stockbridge-Munsee Community, [152]*152Band of Mohican Indians (“Stoekbridge”)2 filed a motion to intervene in Oneida County pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24(a), with the goal of obtaining dismissal of that action to the extent that the land at issue was found to overlap with Stockbridge’s purported six-square-mile reservation. The district court rejected Stockbridge’s motion, finding that Stock-bridge could not demonstrate an interest in the Oneida County litigation. See 432 F.Supp.2d at 291-92. We conclude that this was not an abuse of discretion.

BACKGROUND

The history of the land at issue here and transactions affecting it has been set forth at some length in several other opinions of this and other courts. See, e.g., Sheirill, 544 U.S. at 203-12, 125 S.Ct. 1478; Oneida Indian Nation of N.Y. v. City of Sherrill, N.Y., 337 F.3d 139, 146-52 (2d Cir.2003) (“Oneida Indian Nation of N.Y.”), rev’d, Sherrill, 544 U.S. 197, 125 S.Ct. 1478, 161 L.Ed.2d 386; Oneida Indian Nation of N.Y. v. City of Sherrill, N.Y., 145 F.Supp.2d 226, 232-36 (N.D.N.Y.2001), aff'd in part, vacated and remanded in part, Oneida Indian Nation of N.Y., 337 F.3d 139, rev’d, Sherrill, 544 U.S. 197, 125 S.Ct. 1478, 161 L.Ed.2d 386. We recite only those facts that we think are necessary for an understanding of our resolution of this appeal.

The OIN’s Land

The OIN is a federally recognized Indian Tribe that is directly descended from the Oneida Indian Nation (“Oneida Nation”).3 The Oneida Nation’s lands once encompassed some six million acres in what is now central New York State. In 1788, pursuant to the Treaty of Fort Schuyler between the Oneida Nation and the State of New York, the Nation ceded title to nearly all of its land to the State, retaining a reservation of only approximately 300,000 acres. Sherrill, 544 U.S. at 203, 125 S.Ct. 1478.

In 1790, Congress passed the first Indian Trade and Intercourse Act. See Act of July 22, 1790, ch. 33, 1 Stat. 137 (“Nonintercourse Act”). The Nonintercourse Act, which remains substantially in force today, bars the sale of tribal land without federal government acquiescence. Sherrill, 544 U.S. at 204, 125 S.Ct. 1478. In spite of the provisions of the Act, towards the end of the 18th century and at the beginning of the 19th century, the Oneida Nation sold substantial portions of the remaining reservation land to New York State and to private parties without the federal supervision that the Act required. See id. at 205-06, 125 S.Ct. 1478; Oneida Indian Nation of N.Y., 337 F.3d at 147-48. See also United States v. Oneida Nation of N.Y., 201 Ct.Cl. 546, 477 F.2d 939, 940 (1973) (concluding that the federal government owed a fiduciary duty to protect members of the Oneida Nation in connection with their land dealings with New York State between 1795 and 1846). That land was subsequently sold to non-Indians in free-market transactions. See Oneida Indian Nation of N.Y. v. City of Sherrill, N.Y., 145 F.Supp.2d at 234 n. 3. By 1838, the [153]*153Oneida Nation had sold all but 5,000 acres of the reservation that had been created by the Treaty of Fort Schuyler. See Sherrill, 544 U.S. at 206, 125 S.Ct. 1478. By 1920, that number had dwindled to thirty-two acres. Id. at 207, 125 S.Ct. 1478.

Beginning in 1970, descendants of members of the Oneida Nation pursued federal litigation against local governments in New York in an effort to assert that certain of New York State’s purchases of reservation land during the late 18th and early 19th centuries had been in violation of the Nonintercourse Act, and therefore had not terminated the Oneidas’ right to possess the land. See id. at 208-11, 125 S.Ct. 1478 (summarizing cases). In the 1990s, OIN tribe members also began to purchase, through open-market transactions, land that had once been a part of the Oneida Nation’s reservation. See Oneida Indian Nation of N.Y., 337 F.3d at 144.

The Supreme Court’s Decision in Sherrill

At issue in SHERRILL were parcels of land in the city of Sherrill (located in Oneida County, New York) that had originally been part of the Oneida Nation reservation as established by the Treaty of Fort Schuyler, but that had been transferred by the Oneida Nation to one of its members in 1805, and then in 1807 sold by that person to a non-Indian. Sherrill, 544 U.S. at 211, 125 S.Ct. 1478. The OIN re-acquired these parcels on the open market in 1997 and 1998. Id. In SHERRILL, the OIN asserted that these properties were exempt from taxation, arguing

that because the Court in [Oneida County, N.Y. v. Oneida Indian Nation of N.Y., 470 U.S. 226, 105 S.Ct. 1245, 84 L.Ed.2d 169 (1985)4] recognized the Oneidas’ aboriginal title to their ancient reservation land and because the Tribe has now acquired the specific parcels involved in this suit in the open market, it has unified fee and aboriginal title and may now assert sovereign dominion over the parcels.

Id. at 213, 125 S.Ct. 1478.

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Oneida Indian Nation of NY v. Madison County
605 F.3d 149 (Second Circuit, 2010)

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Bluebook (online)
605 F.3d 149, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 8643, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oneida-indian-nation-of-ny-v-madison-county-ca2-2010.