Eminent Domain: A Modern-Day Indian Removal

After forcibly removed from their homeland in Indiana in 1846 and placed on a reservation in Kansas, the Miami people were again removed just thirty years later and forced to settle in an area now called Miami, Oklahoma. Much of that land was sold off by unscrupulous Indian agents to just as unscrupulous white settlers. The Miami have since sought to repurchase their original allotment lands in order to perpetuate their cultural identity and to reestablish a land-base for Miami citizens. But now the State of Oklahoma is forcibly removing Miami Indians once again. One older couple, Ken and Sharon Prescott (a Miami elder), bought 15 acres of original Miami allotment land. This was to be their retirement home. They wanted to live the rest of their lives on Miami land. This is not to be. The Grand River Dam Authority has just filed a condemnation suit of eminent domain on the Prescott’s property. At almost 70 years old, Sharon is to be honored at her nation’s powwow in Miami this summer, but she does not know whether or not she will still have a home there because Oklahoma wants to appease recreational boaters and expand one of its lakes. In the wake of Kelo v. City of New London, has eminent domain gone too far?