Arapaho, Shoshone attorneys blast reservation boundary ruling in request for rehearing
The new attorneys brought in by the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes held few punches in their appeal of the Tenth Circuit Court decision over the boundaries of the Wind River Reservation in central Wyoming.
In February, a three-judge panel of the court ruled that the reservation had been permanently reduced in size by a 1905 law. The tribes have maintained that the law merely opened up land north of the Wind River, including what is now Riverton, to settlement by non-Indians but did not change the boundaries for the reservation.
However, Chief Judge Timothy Tymkovich ruled in a 2-1 decision that the language of the 1905 Act makes clear that Congress intended to shrink the reservation.
“Congress’s use of the word ‘cede’ can only mean one thing — a diminished reservation,” Tymkovich wrote.
Read more: http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/arapaho-shoshone-attorneys-blast-reservation-boundary-ruling-in-request-for/article_7dd06b55-a78c-511a-b511-7930129854f1.html
Cross-posted in the First Americans Group.