November 3, 1883
The U.S. Supreme Court, in its decision Ex Parte Crow Dog, declared Native Americans were not subject to U.S. law: “It tries them, not by their peers, nor by the customs of their people, nor the law of their land, but by superiors of a different race, according to the law of a social state of which they have an imperfect conception, and which is opposed to the traditions of their history, to the habits of their lives, to the strongest prejudices of their savage nature; one which measures the red man’s revenge by the maxims of the white man’s morality.” Displeased by the Supreme Court’s decision, Congress passed the Major Crimes Act of 1885 in response, placing seven serious felony offenses under the jurisdiction of the federal government. (The case arose when Crow Dog (pictured on the right) was accused of killing Spotted Tail (left.))
