(CN) - The Army Corps of Engineers is not required to comply with a Sioux tribe's request to evaluate properties for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the D.C. Circuit ruled.
The Oglala Sioux filed its complaint in 2001 to stop the Army Corps from transferring property to the state of South Dakota and two other Sioux tribes in accordance with the Water Resources Development Act of 1999.
The tribe claimed that the Great Sioux Reservation was not properly dissolved because the treaty was not ratified by 75 percent of the adult male Sioux population in 1889.
Judge Randolph ruled that the district court was correct in dismissing the tribe's complaint.
"In 1946, the Indian Claims Commission Act imposed a five-year limitations period on Indian claims in law and equity ... and treaties between Indian tribes and the United States."
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