United States v. Shoshone Tribe of Indians’s Empirical Analysis
304 U.S. 111 · 1938
Citation profile
92 federal appellate · 46 district · 28 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 366 later decisions (44 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2023 · most notably United States v. Mitchell (1983), Oneida Indian Nation of New York State v. County of Oneida New York (1974)
92 federal appellate · 46 district · 28 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Samuel Worcester v. The State of Georgia · The Cherokee Nation v. The State of Georgia · Ray Jones v. Patrick Meehan · Leavenworth Lawrence and Galveston Railroad Company v. United States · Shoshone Tribe of Indians v. United States
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 366 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ * * * For all practical purposes, the tribe owned the land. Grants of land subject to the Indian title by the United States, which had only the naked fee, would transfer no beneficial interest. * * * The right of perpetual and exclusive occupancy of the land is not less valuable than full title in fee.””
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“are not to be interpreted narrowly, as sometimes may be writings expressed in words of art employed by conveyancers, but are to be construed in the sense in which naturally the Indians would understand them.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“absolute and undisturbed use and occupation”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.