This bill grants the U.S. Court of Federal Claims the authority to hear a specific land claim by the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma regarding Illinois land, provided the claim is filed within one year, thereby settling all other related claims.
Tom Cole
Representative
OK-4
This bill authorizes the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to hear a specific land claim brought by the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma regarding land in Illinois, overriding standard time limits for filing. The Tribe must file this claim within one year of the Act becoming law. Successfully settling this claim will resolve all other past, present, and future land claims the Tribe may have concerning Illinois territory.
Land Claim Reset: Miami Tribe Gets One Year to File 1805 Treaty Case, But at a High Cost
This legislation, titled the “Settlement of claims,” is a highly specific bill designed to address a long-standing land dispute involving the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and land in Illinois. Essentially, it opens a temporary, specialized door for the Tribe to take the U.S. government to court over claims stemming from the 1805 Treaty signed at Grouseland. The key detail is that it grants the U.S. Court of Federal Claims the power to hear this case, specifically overriding the standard statute of limitations (like the one in 28 U.S.C. § 2501) that would normally block such an old claim.
The One-Year Clock and the Cost of Entry
Think of this bill as a high-stakes, one-time offer with an extremely tight deadline. While the bill clears the decades-old hurdle of the statute of limitations, it immediately replaces it with a new, very strict time limit: the Miami Tribe must file their specific land claim within one year of this Act becoming law. If they miss that 365-day window, the special jurisdiction granted to the court disappears. For the Tribe, this means quickly marshaling legal resources and historical evidence to file a complex case under intense pressure.
The All-or-Nothing Clause for Illinois Land
Here’s where the bill gets particularly complicated and risky. The legislation makes it clear that the ability to pursue this one specific 1805 treaty claim comes with a massive trade-off, outlined in Section 1. By allowing this single claim to be heard and eventually settled, the bill mandates that all other past, present, and future land claims the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma has regarding land located in the State of Illinois are permanently extinguished.
If the Tribe successfully files and wins this specific claim, it achieves resolution on a historical grievance but sacrifices the right to ever pursue any other land claims in Illinois. If they file and lose, or if they miss the one-year deadline entirely, they walk away with nothing and still lose the right to pursue any other Illinois land claims. This provision forces the Tribe into an all-or-nothing scenario, trading the potential resolution of one specific, time-barred claim for the finality of all other potential claims in the state.