[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[June 16, 1992]
[Pages 947-948]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Message to the Senate Returning Without Approval Legislation Amending 
the Mississippi Sioux Indian Judgment Fund Act

June 16, 1992
To the Senate of the United States:
    I am returning herewith without my approval S. 2342. This bill would 
waive the 6-year statute of limitations, allowing three Sioux Indian 
tribes--the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe, the Devils Lake Sioux Tribe, 
and the Sisseton-Wahpeton Council of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of 
the Fort Peck Indian Reservation--to bring an otherwise time-barred 
challenge to the 1972 Mississippi Sioux Indian Judgment Fund Act.
    The 1972 Act apportioned to each of the three Tribes, and to a then-
undetermined class of Sioux Indians who are not members of those Tribes, 
a percentage share of the proceeds from a 1967 judgment against the 
United States. The judgment rested on a finding that the United States 
had not paid adequate compensation to the Tribes in the 1860's for lands 
ceded to the United States. The nonmember Indians are persons who are 
not now eligible for membership in any of the three Tribes, but who can 
trace their lineal ancestry to someone who was once a tribal member.
    The Tribes were active participants in the administrative and 
legislative process leading to the 1972 Act, and they endorsed the Act 
and its distribution of the judgment. Nonetheless, in 1987, 15 years 
after enactment and 9 years after the statute of limitations had run, 
the Tribes sued the United States, challenging the Act's distribution to 
the nonmembers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed 
a lower court's decision to dismiss the case, finding no excuse--legal, 
equitable, or otherwise--for the Tribes' failure to challenge the 1972 
Act in a timely fashion, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review 
the Ninth

[[Page 948]]

Circuit's decision. Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe, et al. v. United 
States, 895 F.2d 588 (9th Cir. 1990), cert. denied, xxxxx U.S. xxxxx 11 
S. Ct. 75 (1990).
    I find no extraordinary circumstances or equities to justify an 
exception to the long-standing policy of the executive branch, which my 
Administration fully embraces, against ad hoc statute of limitations 
waivers and similar special relief bills. Also, there must be some 
definite, limited time during which the Government must be prepared to 
defend itself, and some finality to the pronouncements of the courts, 
the Congress, and the agencies.
    Moreover, a waiver for the Tribes in this case would mean the waste 
of the considerable judicial and litigation resources that were expended 
in bringing the case to final resolution, and would require additional 
litigation that would otherwise be avoided. Thus, enactment of this bill 
would be inconsistent with Executive Order No. 12778 of October 23, 
1991, which embodies my resolve to eliminate unnecessary, wasteful 
litigation.
    In addition, I am concerned that enactment of this bill would be 
unfair to other tribes, and would serve as a highly undesirable and 
potentially expensive precedent. Many other tribes were the recipients 
of settlement fund distributions, and many distributions, like the one 
challenged by the Tribes here, included payments to nonmember Indians. 
Some of those tribes doubtless are dissatisfied with the terms of their 
distribution, but they are barred from a challenge by the statute of 
limitations. Numerous other Indian claims, totaling hundreds of millions 
of dollars, have been dismissed on statute of limitations or other 
jurisdictional grounds. In both categories of cases, tribes could 
rightfully claim that for purposes of fair treatment, they, too, should 
be allowed by the Congress to litigate the merits of their claims.
    I note that S. 2342 received little, if any, consideration by the 
House of Representatives prior to its passage by that body. Instead, the 
bill was discharged from committee without hearings and brought 
immediately to the House floor. Had there been a full review of this 
proposal, I am confident that the outcome would have been different.
    For these reasons, I cannot approve S. 2342.

                                                             George Bush

The White House,
June 16, 1992.