Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation

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Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation, 362 U.S. 99 (1960) was a case decided by the United States Supreme Court which determined that the Federal Power Commission was authorized to take lands owned by the Tuscarora Indian tribe by eminent domain under the Federal Power Act for a hydroelectric power project, upon payment of just compensation.

[edit] Facts

Robert Moses expropriated 550 acres (2.2 km²) of the Tuscarora Indian tribe's land in the town of Lewiston, New York for a hydroelectric project in the vicinity of Niagara Falls. The land had been purchased and was owned in fee simple, with the assistance of Henry Dearborn, then Secretary of War, from the Holland Land Company on November 21, 1804, with the proceeds derived from the contemporaneous sale of the tribe's lands in North Carolina, from which they had removed in about the year 1775 to reside with the Oneidas in central New York.

The Tuscaroras objected to the taking on the basis of the Federal Power Act which contained an exception for Indian reservations, forbidding the taking of any part of such lands except after a finding by the Federal Power Commission that the taking "will not interfere or be inconsistent with the purpose for which such reservation was created or acquired ..." and no finding had been made.

The Federal Power Act defined reservations as: "national forests, tribal lands embraced within Indian reservations, military reservations, and other lands and interests in lands owned by the United States, and withdrawn, reserved, or withheld from private appropriation and disposal under the public land laws; also lands and interests in lands acquired and held for any public purpose; but shall not include national monuments or national parks."

[edit] The Court's opinion

In an opinion by Justice Whittaker, the Court held that lands held by the Tuscarora tribe were not reservations within the meaning of the act. The Court explained, "The plain words of this definition seem rather clearly to show that Congress intended the term "reservations," wherever used in the Act, to embrace only "lands and interests in lands owned by the United States."

Justice Brennan concurred in the result.

Justices Black, Warren and Douglas dissented saying that the majority's definition of reservation was "artificial".