The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that the small Nebraska town of Parker with only a few Indian residents is actually part of the Omaha Indian Reservation.
Despite that ruling, the state of Wyoming is arguing that that was a one time deal and that the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals should rule that the town of Riverton is not part of the Wind River Reservation of the Eastern Shoshone tribe.
The Wyoming Attorney General and several attorneys for Fremont County, Riverton city and others argue that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was wrong to conclude that the town lies within the reservation.
The U.S. Department of Justice and attorneys for the tribe argue that the same standards the high court applied to the Omaha case should apply to Wyoming.
Such a decision would not switch land ownership but would put the few Indians who are covered by it under the jurisdiction of the tribe.
The March 22 Supreme Court decision applied a legal test as to whether a law Congress passed in the 1880s had intended to detach Parker from the reservation and concluded that it did not.
