St. Cloud v. United States

St. Cloud v. United States

Opinion

 [*1457]  MEMORANDUM OPINION

DONALD J. PORTER, CHIEF UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE.

Petitioner Richard Norman St. Cloud was indicted on counts of rape under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1153 ¹ [**2]  and 2031 ² and oral sodomy under 18 U.S.C. § 1153 and SDCL 22-22-1(1) and 22-22-2. ³ [**3]  St. Cloud plead guilty in this Court to involuntary sodomy and was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. ⁴ St. Cloud has filed under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 a motion in which he argues that this Court lacked jurisdiction to convict him. Specifically, St. Cloud contends that because he is enrolled in a terminated Indian tribe, he is not an "Indian" and thus cannot be tried in federal court for a crime against a non-Indian. This Court holds that St. Cloud is not subject to federal criminal jurisdiction under the circumstances of this case.

I. FACTS

Richard St. Cloud's nationality is approximately  [*1458]  15/32 Yankton Sioux and 7/16 Ponca. ⁵ His father is a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, and his mother is enrolled in the Ponca Indian Tribe of Nebraska.

Early in his life, St. Cloud became an enrolled member of the Ponca Indian Tribe. On September 5, 1962, Congress passed legislation to "terminate" the Ponca Indians pursuant to House Concurrent Resolution 108. See 25 U.S.C. §§ 971-980. In accordance with the termination legislation, the Secretary of the Interior compiled a final membership roll and distributed tribal assets to enrolled Ponca Indians. Richard St. Cloud's name appeared on the final roll, and through  [**4]  his parents, St. Cloud received proceeds from the asset distribution.

St. Cloud later moved to the Lower Brule Sioux Indian Reservation where he lived from 1973 until 1986. St. Cloud married an enrolled member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and has several children who also are tribal members. In 1983, St. Cloud applied for enrollment in the Yankton Sioux Tribe. The tribe, however, rejected his application because a provision in the tribe's constitution prohibited St. Cloud from becoming a member since he was enrolled with the terminated Ponca tribe and had received assets from a tribal judgment fund upon Ponca termination. ⁶

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