Raymond "Ray" Cross (August 24, 1948 – January 24, 2023) was an American attorney and law professor from the U.S. state of
North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, So ...
. He was a member of the
Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation
The Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation (MHA Nation), also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan: ''Miiti Naamni''; Hidatsa: ''Awadi Aguraawi''; Arikara: ''ačitaanu' táWIt''), is a Native American Nation resulting from the alliance of th ...
, also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes, and a former professor of American Indian Law at the
University of Montana
The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fa ...
.
As an attorney, Cross represented Native Americans in multiple landmark trials, including two
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
cases, and successfully won a compensation claim against the U.S. government for the flooding of 156,000 acres of tribal land in North Dakota due to the construction of the
Garrison Dam
Garrison Dam is an earth-fill embankment dam on the Missouri River in central North Dakota, U.S.
Constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1947 to 1953, at over in length, the dam is the fifth-largest earthen dam in the world. The re ...
.
Early life and education
Raymond Cross was born on August 24, 1948, in
Elbowoods, North Dakota, on the
Fort Berthold Indian Reservation
The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation is a U.S. Indian reservation in western North Dakota that is home for the federally recognized Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes. The reservation includes lands o ...
.
The youngest of ten siblings, Cross was raised in a rustic farmhouse without running water or electricity. His father, Martin Cross, was tribal chairman of the
Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation
The Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation (MHA Nation), also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan: ''Miiti Naamni''; Hidatsa: ''Awadi Aguraawi''; Arikara: ''ačitaanu' táWIt''), is a Native American Nation resulting from the alliance of th ...
, and his mother, Dorothy Cross, was a Norwegian homesteader.
The Cross family was forced to relocate to
Parshall, North Dakota
Parshall (Hidatsa: ''dibiarugareesh'') is a city lying within the jurisdictional boundaries of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. It is located on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in Mountrail County, North Dakota, United States. The po ...
after the construction of the
Garrison Dam
Garrison Dam is an earth-fill embankment dam on the Missouri River in central North Dakota, U.S.
Constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1947 to 1953, at over in length, the dam is the fifth-largest earthen dam in the world. The re ...
flooded nine Indian communities, including Elbowoods, under hundreds of feet of water, forming
Lake Sakakawea
Lake Sakakawea is a large reservoir in the north central United States, impounded in 1953 by Garrison Dam, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam located in the Missouri River basin in central North Dakota. Named for the Shoshone-Hidatsa woman Sa ...
. Cross’ father spent years lobbying
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
to stop the construction of the dam and later waged an unsuccessful effort to secure just compensation for the Three Affiliated Tribes.
After the
Indian Relocation Act fractured the family, Cross was sent to live in
Santa Clara, California
Santa Clara (; Spanish for " Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 census, making it the eighth-most populous city in the Bay Area. Located in the southern Bay Area, the cit ...
for his early high school years. With the encouragement of his guidance counselor at Santa Clara High School, he applied and was accepted to
Stanford University. He secured a scholarship from the
Bureau of Indian Affairs and graduated in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in political science. He earned his
Juris Doctor in 1973 from
Yale Law School
Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...
and was admitted to the
California Bar
The State Bar of California is California's official attorney licensing agency. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law, investigating complaints of professional misconduct, prescribing appropriate disciplin ...
.
Career
California Indian Legal Services (C.I.L.S.)
Cross began his legal career in 1973 as a staff attorney with California Indian Legal Services in its
Mendocino County
Mendocino County (; ''Mendocino'', Spanish for "of Mendoza) is a county located on the North Coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 91,601. The county seat is Ukiah.
Mendocino County consists whol ...
office located in
Ukiah, California
Ukiah ( ; Pomo: ''Yokaya'', meaning "deep valley") is the county seat and largest city of Mendocino County, California, with a population of 16,607 at the 2020 census. With its accessible location along the U.S. Route 101 corridor, Ukiah serves ...
.
Native American Rights Fund (NARF)
Cross served from 1975 through 1980 as the Indian Law Support Center Director for the
Native American Rights Fund
The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) is a non-profit organization that uses existing laws and treaties to ensure that U.S. state governments and the U.S. federal government live up to their legal obligations. NARF also "provides legal representa ...
.
During his tenure at the Native American Rights Fund, Cross represented the
Klamath Indian Tribe in its successful litigation effort to establish its federally-protected water rights for the preservation of the tribe's aboriginal hunting, fishing, gathering, and trapping practices within the
Klamath Marsh region of south central
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...
. He also represented the
Pascua Yaqui
The Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizonais a federally recognized tribe of Yaqui Native Americans in state of Arizona.
Descended from the Yaqui people whose original homelands include the Yaqui River valley in western Sonora, Mexico and southern Ariz ...
Tribe in its successful effort to secure
federal recognition
This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...
of its aboriginal status as an American Indian tribe entitled to federal protection and services.
Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation
Cross returned to the
Fort Berthold Indian Reservation
The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation is a U.S. Indian reservation in western North Dakota that is home for the federally recognized Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes. The reservation includes lands o ...
in 1981 to serve as tribal attorney for his people, the
Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation
The Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation (MHA Nation), also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan: ''Miiti Naamni''; Hidatsa: ''Awadi Aguraawi''; Arikara: ''ačitaanu' táWIt''), is a Native American Nation resulting from the alliance of th ...
. He represented his tribe in two
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
cases, Three Affiliated Tribes v. Wold Engineering 467 U.S. 138 and Three Affiliated Tribes v. Wold Engineering 476 U.S. 877, in which he successfully argued that state courts be opened to tribal damage actions against non-Indian defendants and reaffirmed fundamental principles of tribal sovereign immunity established in Supreme Court Chief Justice
John Marshall’s
Trust Doctrine.
He also took on the cause of his father, Martin Cross, in representing his tribal people in their long standing just compensation claim against the United States for its 1949 taking of over 156,000 acres of reservation land as the site for the
Garrison Dam
Garrison Dam is an earth-fill embankment dam on the Missouri River in central North Dakota, U.S.
Constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1947 to 1953, at over in length, the dam is the fifth-largest earthen dam in the world. The re ...
, the world's fourth largest rolled earth dam. Cross spent eight years lobbying Congress, and in 1992, Congress awarded the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation over $149 million in just compensation for wrongs imposed on the tribal people by the
Garrison Dam
Garrison Dam is an earth-fill embankment dam on the Missouri River in central North Dakota, U.S.
Constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1947 to 1953, at over in length, the dam is the fifth-largest earthen dam in the world. The re ...
.
Due to these legal victories, Cross was named a
Bush Foundation fellow at the
Harvard Kennedy School
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
where he earned a Master of Public Administration and met his wife, Kathleen Cross (née Johnston).
Academia
Cross served on the faculty of the
California Polytechnic State University from 1990 through 1993 and at the
University of Montana
The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fa ...
from 1993 to 2015 as an expert on American Indian and environmental law.
Cross has authored numerous works on American Indian law interpretation and environmental law.
In addition to his own writing, Cross’ legal career is chronicled in the books “Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes and the Trial That Forged a Nation” and “Savages and Scoundrels” by Paul Vandevelder.
Personal life
Ray married Kathleen Cross (née Johnston), his
Harvard Kennedy School
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
classmate, in 1989. They had a daughter, Helena Cross, and son, Cade Cross.
Death
Ray died on January 24, 2023, at his home in Tucson, Arizona, following complications from a spinal cord tumor. His family was at his bedside.
Ray was preceded in death by his parents, Martin Cross and Dorothy Cross; siblings, Phyllis Cross, Martin Cross, Jr., Marilyn Hudson, Mike Cross, and Forrest Cross.
The immediate family will celebrate Ray's life privately with a scattering of ashes at Prayer Rock on the family's Yellow Eagle ranch in North Dakota in the summer of 2023.
In the very appropriate words of the Obituary published in the ''
Missoulian
The ''Missoulian'' is a daily newspaper printed in Missoula, Montana, United States. The newspaper has been owned by Lee Enterprises since 1959. The ''Missoulian'' is the largest published newspaper in Western Montana, and is distributed througho ...
'' on January 28, 2023, "In honor of Ray, go forward with courage, kind words and good deeds."
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cross, Raymond
1948 births
2023 deaths
American lawyers
Native American lawyers
Stanford University alumni
Yale Law School alumni
Harvard Kennedy School alumni
University of Montana faculty
California Polytechnic State University faculty
North Dakota lawyers
Three Affiliated Tribes people
Native American academics
20th-century Native Americans
21st-century Native Americans
American people of Norwegian descent