The Oneida Nation of New York originally held lands numbering 6,000,000 acres, but through a series of treaties in the 1800’s an
d land sales was brought down to 34 acres. In 2004, the Oneida Nation purchased some of the original land back on the open market. The town of Sherrill attempted to tax the land, demanding payment from the tribe. The tribe claimed the purchased land was now part of their territory and thus nontaxable. The case reached the Supreme Court, where Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the Court’s decision: Under the “doctrine of discovery … “fee title to the lands occupied by Indians when the colonists arrived became vested (owned completely) in the sovereign—first the discovering European nation and later the original States and the United States,”
Question:(Research the case and discover how the court ruled.)
