Introduction The last physical conflict with the Indian Nations ended more than 120 years ago however, conflicts over land and respective privileges given to all American Indians, tribes, and nation governments still experience battles only on a different plain. Scholastic research in 2003 identified approximately 613 federally recognized tribes with reservations; 384 of the federally recognized tribes exist in the lower 48 states and an additional 229 Alaska Native Villages with registered land of less than 100 acres to the Navajo reservation exceeding 1.6 million acres (Adamson, 2003). Why are cognitive battles over land, rights, and trust funds occurring in the U.S. Supreme Courts still today? Of the over 55.7 million acres of reservation lands in the lower 48 states and 42 million acres of Alaska Native lands, the Indian Nation’s distinctly the foremost largest owner of private land in the U.S. with a collective land base fourth in size behind Alaska, Texas, and California (Adamson, 2003; Hettler, 2011; Pommersheim, 2013). The tribal lands account for “5 percent of the U.S. oil and 10 percent of the gas reserves, 30 percent of the low sulphur coal reserves and 40 percent of the privately held uranium deposits” (Adamson, 2003, p. 26). Although the Indian Nations are collectively the largest landowners in the U.S., the tribes are also the distinctly one of the poorest populations and recognized as being “land rich and dirt poor” (Adamson, 2003, p. 26). Today, the reported increase of overall income for the Indian Nations could exceed an additional $75 billion per year with an increase of 5 percent on the U.S. gross domestic product for natural resources if the Native American reservations developed the vast energy reso... ... middle of paper ... ... Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com Regan, S., & Anderson, T. L. (2013). The energy wealth of Indian Nations. Property & Environment Research Center, 1-29. Retrieved from https://www.bushcenter.org Scott, A. (1921). Participation in a breach of trust. Harvard Law Review, 34(5), 454-482. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com Stout, J. (2011). Tribal self-determination in natural resources: Management, control, and trust responsibilities or the lack thereof in Navajo Nation v. United States, 129 S. Ct. 1547 (2009). Nebraska Law Review, 89538. Twomey, D. P., Jennings, M., & Anderson, R. A. (2011) Anderson’s business law and the legal environment (21st ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. United States v. Navajo Nation, 537 U.S. 488, 123 S. Ct. 1079, 155 L. Ed. 2d 60 (2003). United States v. Navajo Nation, 07-1410 (Supreme Court Apr. 6, 2009).
It had previously been the policy of the American government to remove and relocate Indians further and further west as the American population grew, but there was only so much...
Tribal lands were not all purely native Americans. Interracial marriages encouraged the potential for bully and abuse within their own tribal lands. This encouraged formal acts of government within the tribes such as, court trials that resulted in the extension of Native American sovereignty. But it also allowed for the tribes to govern themselves “legal grey areas” which were clearly evident to the Native Americans and many conflicts arose because of the procrastination of fixing the problem at hand. Native Americans have fought against the suppression of rights and discrimination but persevered adopting new rights to vote, along with the ability to self-govern their own communities and deal with their own domestic laws under the United States of
For several hundred years people have sought answers to the Indian problems, who are the Indians, and what rights do they have? These questions may seem simple, but the answers themselves present a difficult number of further questions and answers. State and Federal governments have tried to provide some order with a number of laws and policies, sometimes resulting in state and federal conflicts. The Federal Government's attempt to deal with Indian tribes can be easily understood by following the history of Federal Indian Policy. Indians all over the United States fought policies which threatened to destroy their familial bonds and traditions. The Passamaquoddy Indian Tribe of Maine, resisted no less than these other tribes, however, thereby also suffering a hostile anti-Indian environment from the Federal Government and their own State, Maine. But because the Passamaquoddy Tribe was located in such a remote area, they escaped many federal Indian policies.
American Indians shaped their critique of modern America through their exposure to and experience with “civilized,” non-Indian American people. Because these Euro-Americans considered traditional Indian lifestyle savage, they sought to assimilate the Indians into their civilized culture. With the increase in industrialization, transportation systems, and the desire for valuable resources (such as coal, gold, etc.) on Indian-occupied land, modern Americans had an excuse for “the advancement of the human race” (9). Euro-Americans moved Indians onto reservations, controlled their education and practice of religion, depleted their land, and erased many of their freedoms. The national result of this “conquest of Indian communities” was a steady decrease of Indian populations and drastic increase in non-Indian populations during the nineteenth century (9). It is natural that many American Indians felt fearful that their culture and people were slowly vanishing. Modern America to American Indians meant the destruction of their cultural pride and demise of their way of life.
Garrison, Tim Alan. The Legal Ideology of Removal: The Southern Judiciary and the Sovereignty of Native American Nations Studies in the Legal History of the South. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2002.
In 1803, during the Presidency of Thomas Jefferson, the Louisiana Purchase was conducted as history’s greatest real-estate deals. The United States paid 15 million for the vast territory ranging from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada and from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. Because Jefferson believed that artisans and farmers were the backbone of the economy he advocated for the western expansion. Thomas Jefferson envisioned what he termed as the “Empire of Liberty,” the uniting of territories as states, each having equal political rights. The western expansion was met with a number of controversies. There was controversy over the expansion of slavery into the Western territories entered political debates. What about the Indians
From the beginning of the United States’ government, Indian tribes were given rights to be treated as nations, and their rights be respected according to the Constitution. For instance, Henry Knox, Secretary of War in 1789, wrote to President George Washington that, “The Indians being the prior occupants, possess the right of the soil. It cannot be taken from them unless by their free consent, or by the right of conquest in case of a just war” (Document B). By this, the US government confirmed the authority of Indians on American land as they are the “prior occupants”, and their land should never be taken unless they agree or they lose in a war. Although the US government sounds just and fair in attitude, for years, Indians were intentionally tricked into treaties that ceded huge amount of territory to the whites.
For hundreds of years, Native Americans and their lands have been a major controversial topic. People and tribes have fought many battles to protect and gain land for the Native Americans. Today, Native Americans are having to face the problem of the production of the Dakota Access Pipeline. This pipeline is projected to be built right through the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Many people are concerned about the effects of this pipeline as well as the Native Americans whose land it might destroy. It is currently being debated whether or not the Dakota Access Pipeline should go through the reservation. The Standing Rock Indian Reservation should be left alone and not be disturbed by the creation of the Dakota Access
From the beginning of the 20th Century, there were nearly 250,000 Native Americans in the United States who accounted for approximately 0.3 percent of the population. This population was mostly residing in reservations where they executed a restricted extent of self-government. Native Americans have experienced numerous challenges related to land use and inconsistent public policies. Actually, during the 19th Century, Native Americans were dispossessed of a huge section of their land through forced removal westwards, through a series of treaties that were largely dishonored, and through military defeat by the United States in its expansion of control over the American West (Boxer par,1). Moreover, Native Americans have experienced
... American culture and the livelihood of the Indian tribes. However, there are some significant ideas that are brought up in the federal law. One of the most specific and controversial is the concept of whom is considered a parent and how might they prove their legitimacy to parenthood. Other debates examine whom may adopt or care for an Indian-American child and is it correct to deny a family from adopting or temporarily caring for a child because they are not of Native American descent? These are all broad questions that will examined in the future. As the United States Supreme Court ruled, specific portions of this law are up for further examination and analysis. This will be very beneficial to the future of the law and maintaining its relevance to child custody cases.
As “economic opportunities” align to the mandates of the world economy and are determined by the culture and experience of the United States government, both Pine Ridge and Rosebud maintain distressing levels of poverty and unemployment. In direct response to demands of the world economy, Lakota industry exhibits a growing dependence on cash instead of land, and breaks down community identity (65). Wal-Mart and Safeway chains encumber the production of Lakota-owned small businesses, and similar multinational business chains create limited market success. When a small business actually succeeds in surviving, competition immediately pops up and “neither [competing business] can make a living” on reservations (37). Attitudes towards successful Lakota entrepreneurs are often sour and unforgiving, as everyone else struggles to survive.
The circumstances the Native American people endured clarify their current issues. American Indians have poor education and a high percent are unemployed when equated to “U.S. all races” (Spector, 2009, p. 205). Many American Indians still live on reservations and work as a
Sandefur, G. (n.d.). American Indian reservations: The first underclass areas? Retrieved April 28, 2014, from http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/focus/pdfs/foc121f.pdf
Abadinsky, Howard. Law and Justice: An Introduction to the American Legal System. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.
This land which the had been reserved for the Indians was now being distributed by the government. There were thousands of landless and hungry Indians due to the white taking over their land. The federal government never removed the illegal settlers, instead, they forced the Natives to sign a new treaty that surrendered more of the Native American’s land. Treaty after treaty the Americans pushed aside the Natives and did not fulfil their promise. The eagerness to enlarge the horizon of the United States and the invasion of white people due to the gold rush, troubled the Indians and sent them into a disastrous downward spiral (Garraty 405, Lecture-21