The Historical Context of American Indian Legal Problems

The status of internal sovereignty or local autonomy of Indian tribes in their respective jurisdictions derives directly from the historical experiences of Indians & whites in the New World. Colonists treated Indian groups as independent nations, making formal treaties & agreements. European...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Law and contemporary problems 1976-01, Vol.40 (1), p.12-24
Main Author: Washburn, Wilcomb E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
America/American/Americans
Governors
India/Indian/Indians
Jurisdiction
Law/Laws (see also Legal, Legislation)
Legal status
Native Americans
Sovereignty
The Historical and Administrative Context of American Indian Policy
Treaties
Treaty lands
Tribal land
United States/US
War
White people
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Summary:The status of internal sovereignty or local autonomy of Indian tribes in their respective jurisdictions derives directly from the historical experiences of Indians & whites in the New World. Colonists treated Indian groups as independent nations, making formal treaties & agreements. European claims to sovereignty were not pressed until later, after Indian tribes had lost their power. Treaties continued to be made in good faith until 1871. Reservations were set up in the 1840s & 1850s in the response to white western movement. These same reservations were destroyed at the end of the nineteenth century when white settlers demanded the land. Then came the railroad, frontiersmen, & miners onto Indian land. A law (The Dawes Act) was enacted to break reservation land into individualized parcels for Indians to farm, with surplus land being sold to white settlers. During this period a movement was building toward the exercise of federal, as opposed to tribal, jurisdiction over individual Indians & toward inclusion of the Indians within the body politic as full citizens, though there was no comprehensive theory of federal-Indian relations guiding policy in every domain of Indian life. The Indian Reorganization Act gave legal recognition to tribal governments as distinct from federal, state, & local governments, & maintained & strengthened trust responsibilities of the federal government to the Indians. This act remains the guiding expression of federal Indian policy. G. Simpson.
ISSN:0023-9186
1945-2322
DOI:10.2307/1191329