Hazen Hunter Winckler v. South Dakota

Whether Lake Andes, South Dakota – located on Yankton Sioux allotted lands within the boundaries of the reservation created by the Treaty with the Yankton Sioux, April 19, 1858, 11 Stat. 743 – constitutes Indian country under 18 U.S.C. § 1151, such that the State of South Dakota lacked jurisdiction to prosecute Petitioner, an enrolled tribal member, for offenses occurring there, where the South Dakota Supreme Court’s holding that allotted lands lose Indian country status upon conveyance to non-Indian ownership conflicts with this Court’s precedents including McGirt v. Oklahoma, 591 U.S. 894 (2020), and Solem v. Bartlett, 465 U.S. 463 (1984), which established only Congress can divest Indian country status through clear and explicit statutory language.