Can the tribe stop all traffic on a state highway?

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havasu said:
I have a vacation home on an Indian reservation. I bought the house, and lease the land from the tribe. Two months ago, they prohibited access into our homes, only allowing Indians. Do you think it is fair that I pay them their monthly lease, for a property they have disallowed me to go to?
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What does your lease say reguarding access to your property?
 
Tacotom said:
Sorry. It should be deed. Ziebach county would also be on the reservation. You needed to be 21 to homestead
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I always thought that the homestead was in his father's name. I found some short pieces about him (g grandfather) going to homestead in South Dakota. G grandfather would have been around 50 at the time.

Also in the family stories is that G grandfather would go to Sturgis for days on end to gamble. Sturgis is about 100 miles from Faith. A person can go about 25 miles a day on horseback, so that trip would have taken him 4 days to get from Faith to Sturgis. Uncle and I have both questioned how and why someone would make that trip just to gamble?

Uncle told me that g grandfather lost his meat market and meat packing plant in Nebraska due to something shady. I wondered if he had lost it to a gambling debt? We will never know for sure. I did find records for land in step-mother's name that they owned later in another part of Nebraska. I believe that was done to protect the land from his gambling debts. G grandfather had 5 children from first marriage, 4 who lived to be adults. Not one of them inherited a red cent when G grandfather died in 1939 or when step mother died in 1932. Their 2 surviving sons (grandfather's half brothers) inherited everything, literally running G grandfather off of the land and homes that they had. They owned more than a section of land (640 + acres), a few houses in a few communities and some city (small town) lots. This g grandfather also played the stock market heavily and at one time was a millionaire until Black Friday, 1929. He had nothing when he died. The funny thing is that he is buried by his first wife with a big and beautiful headstone, and second wife is buried in an unmarked grave.
 
Weedygarden said:
I always thought that the homestead was in his father's name. I found some short pieces about him (g grandfather) going to homestead in South Dakota. G grandfather would have been around 50 at the time.

Also in the family stories is that G grandfather would go to Sturgis for days on end to gamble. Sturgis is about 100 miles from Faith. A person can go about 25 miles a day on horseback, so that trip would have taken him 4 days to get from Faith to Sturgis. Uncle and I have both questioned how and why someone would make that trip just to gamble?

Uncle told me that g grandfather lost his meat market and meat packing plant in Nebraska due to something shady. I wondered if he had lost it to a gambling debt? We will never know for sure. I did find records for land in step-mother's name that they owned later in another part of Nebraska. I believe that was done to protect the land from his gambling debts. G grandfather had 5 children from first marriage, 4 who lived to be adults. Not one of them inherited a red cent when G grandfather died in 1939 or when step mother died in 1932. Their 2 surviving sons (grandfather's half brothers) inherited everything, literally running G grandfather off of the land and homes that they had. They owned more than a section of land (640 + acres), a few houses in a few communities and some city (small town) lots. This g grandfather also played the stock market heavily and at one time was a millionaire until Black Friday, 1929. He had nothing when he died. The funny thing is that he is buried by his first wife with a big and beautiful headstone, and second wife is buried in an unmarked grave.
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I'm always interested in history. Hearing others personal stories makes it seem more real
 
Tacotom said:
I'm always interested in history. Hearing others personal stories makes it seem more real
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I do, too. Putting this story together about g grandfather has taken me decades, but there is so much interesting stuff in it. His parents were peasants in Bohemia (Czech Republic) until that feudal system ended in 1848. His parents owned 1/4 of a piece of land that was 45 acres, so around 11 acres, and on that piece of land, many family members were supported. Potatoes were not around until around 1775 or 1780, so people must have been eating lots of peas, beans, turnips, and cabbage before that.
 
My understanding (and at least experience w/ local tribes) is that reservations are treated as their own state. They make up their own laws like a state would but do have to abide by federal laws. This has caused some issue around here as their "law" doesn't always jive w/ Fed. and is apt to change on a dime to suit their whim. One of the main issues around here is private property on the rez. I would not purchase land on a rez.!
 
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LadyLocust said:
My understanding (and at least experience w/ local tribes) is that reservations are treated as their own state. They make up their own laws like a state would but do have to abide by federal laws. This has caused some issue around here as their "law" doesn't always jive w/ Fed. and is apt to change on a dime to suit their whim. One of the main issues around here is private property on the rez. I would not purchase land on a rez.!
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I'm subject to federal state and county laws. Not tribal laws at all. They are subject to federal and tribal laws. Not state or county. Makes for major confusion when a tribal member breaks a law off the reservation
 
I'm sorry to say @Weedygarden Gambling has as her sisters 2 other choice habits, alcohol and women.
W.C. Fields said, "I spent half my money on gambling, alcohol, and wild women. The other half I wasted."
I would assume that's what kept your relative away from home.
 
Tacotom said:
I live on Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation in northern South Dakota. The tribe is stopping all traffic on state and federal highways and only letting people through that they want. Does anyone know if this is legal or where I can go to find out more information?
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As legal as DUI check points? As legal as getting stopped to check if your are an essential employee?
 
Patchouli said:
I'm sorry to say @Weedygarden Gambling has as her sisters 2 other choice habits, alcohol and women.
W.C. Fields said, "I spent half my money on gambling, alcohol, and wild women. The other half I wasted."
I would assume that's what kept your relative away from home.
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I believe this g grandfather was an alcoholic as well. There are many people on both sides of my family who have been as well. It is one good reason for me not to touch the stuff, ever. One of my brothers drank as much as he could for decades. When he quit drinking, he started gambling.
 
Tacotom said:
They still have them operating. The tribal council is now talking about putting up roll booths
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Aren't we talking about Cheyenne River reservation? Someone told me that they have more money than the other reservations and the members who live there drive nice vehicles. Nice vehicles are not necessarily seen on reservations, except by a few ranchers who raise cattle. This was observed while this person drove through Eagle Butte, that there seemed to be something going on that created some wealth for tribal members.

Maybe they are finding all kinds of ways to make money and improve their lives, but maybe just to make money with the toll booth idea. Or maybe to create a reason that people would go a different direction and not damage their reservation roads?

I am not sure how they have gotten their money, when I see a place like Rosebud with it's casino and some of the homes are in such poor condition. Maybe Cheyenne River has a casino, but the one in Rosebud doesn't seem to be all that prosperous. They have 3 wind generators (if my memory serves me right), and like wind generators in America, are not all working.
 
Not understanding all of the laws, etc. Are they doing this so that eventually the roads will not go through the reservation lands and they can have it be sovereign land, (more like private do not trespass)? State roads department would have to find another way to get to here, there and the other side. Just wondering.
 
We have three pages of posts here with everybody playing Jailhouse Lawyer.

My advice, Tacotom, would be to consult an attorney in your area that KNOWS the law. They will give you a much more educated opinion of what can be done, and what can't be done. They may also weigh in on what laws the State chooses to enforce. The Tribe may be dead wrong on blocking the highway, but if the State isn't going to do anything about it you are SOL. There seems to be a lot of that (non enforcement of existing law) going around lately.
 
Thanks Morgan. I'll give you an idea of what I have been doing. The VIA has issued a stop notice to the tribe already. So the Department of Interior maintains that they can't block traffic on public roadways. I called and spoke to the assistant Attorney General who oversees the tribal affairs. He insists that the tribe can do whatever they want. So we are caught between the DO I and the DOJ. Some one needs to step up and find an answer
 
Tacotom said:
Our governor can't do anything because it's a federal not state issue
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You will earn your place in heaven trying to figure that out. With both Federal and State pointing the finger at each other, those two monstrosities can't even agree to disagree. The Tribe will go extinct before anything is done. Good Luck. I hope it isn't to much of an inconvenience.
 
Tacotom said:
This reservation is one of the poorest in the nation. No casino. No income at all except for grazing leases. Eagle Butts is a dump of a town that no one would go to unless they had to
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You were right and whatever I was told was so wrong. This is the ranking of reservations by level of poverty, Navajo being the poorest.

I've never been on Cheyenne River or Pine Ridge. Relatives strongly advised against ever driving through Pine Ridge, and you understand why. I've only been through Rosebud, Lower Brule and Crow Creek, that I know of.

I attended college with a number of Native American's whose tribe will pay for them to become educated. They get tuition, books, housing, food and an allowance for expenses. One of my best friends is half Mandan Sioux with a Master's degree. I saw girls in college with everything paid for, but who struggled with alcohol at a very young age. One girl drove drunk in the college town and hit several cars within one city block. Like me, the thing for them to do is not touch alcohol. It destroys so many lives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reser...poverty_rates_on_the_ten_largest_reservations
ReservationLocationExtreme Poverty Rate
Navajo NationArizona, New Mexico, and Utah14.9
Uintah and Ouray Indian ReservationUtah4.2
Tohono O'odham Indian ReservationArizona20.7
Cheyenne River Indian ReservationSouth Dakota14.6
Standing Rock Indian ReservationSouth Dakota and North Dakota16.6
Crow Indian ReservationMontana9.7
Wind River Indian ReservationWyoming13.4
Pine Ridge Indian ReservationSouth Dakota20.9
Fort Peck Indian ReservationMontana10.1
San Carlos Indian ReservationArizona25.1
National Average4.0
 
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Weedy: Can you explain the numbers/Poverty Rating? Is that a % of the people who live below the Poverty Line? I'm not doubting or challenging anything. I just wonder how they come up with the number? THX
 
I'm in the northern edge of Cheyenne River and standing rock is starts 5 miles from my house. The school my kids graduated from is on standing rock reservation
 
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