Ex parte Crow Dog
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Ex parte Crow Dog
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Supreme Court of the United States
Argued November 26, 1883
Decided December 17, 1883
Full case name Ex parte Kan-gi-shun-ca (otherwise known as Crow Dog)
Citations 109 U.S. 556 (more)
3 S. Ct. 396; 27 L. Ed. 1030
Prior history U.S. v. Kan-gi-shun-ca, 14 N.W. 437, 3 Dakota 106 (Dakota Terr. 1882)
Holding
Held that a federal court did not have jurisdiction to try an Indian who killed another Indian on the reservation when the offense had been tried by the tribal court, writ of habeas corpus granted.
Court membership
Chief Justice
Morrison Waite
Associate Justices
Samuel F. Miller · Stephen J. Field
Joseph P. Bradley · John M. Harlan
William B. Woods · T. Stanley Matthews
Horace Gray · Samuel Blatchford
Case opinions
Majority J. Matthews
Laws applied
Revised Stat. §2146 (1878)
Ex parte Crow Dog, 109 U.S. 556 (1883), is a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that followed the death of one member of a Native American tribe at the hands of another on reservation land. Crow Dog was a member of the Brulé band of the Lakota Sioux. On August 5, 1881 he shot and killed Spotted Tail, a Lakota chief; there are different accounts of the background to the killing. The tribal council dealt with the incident according to Sioux tradition, and Crow Dog paid restitution to the dead man's family. However, the U.S. authorities then prosecuted Crow Dog for murder in a federal court. He was found guilty and sentenced to hang. The Supreme Court held that unless authorized by Congress, federal courts had no jurisdiction to try cases where the offense had already been tried by the tribal council.[1] Crow Dog was therefore released. The case led to the Major Crimes Act in 1885, which placed some major crimes (initially 7, now 15) under