Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians v. United States

These interlocutory appeals under the Indian Claims Commission Act concern Indian title to a large area in North Dakota, about 10 million acres along the Canadian border. In the early 19th century, numbers of Chippewas moved *432westward from their woodland home to the plains area in what is now Minnesota, North Dakota, and parts of Canada. They adapted to life on the plains and pushed back other tribes. Eventually, the flow of white settlement caught up with these plains Chippewas, who were known as Pembinas. In 1863, the Pembina Band of Chippewas ceded to the Federal Government the area (Royce…