Imagine a world where there weren’t consequences to the decisions that have been made regarding the “discovery” of the Americas and the unethical treatment made towards the Native Americans. Would the indigenous people have more rights? Would they be more successful as a nation now without the involvement of the white man? Surely the answer would be yes, however it is too late to ask ourselves questions like that. This essay will look at two court cases described in Walter Echo-Hawk’s book, In the Courts of the Conqueror, a book that details ten of the most negatively impactful court cases in Unites States history regarding the treatment of Native Americans and how they are still being impacted to this very day by the rulings of those cases.
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That is to say, the Indians had never really undertaken those acts of possession that gave rise to a property right,” (Carol p17). This affirmed the District Court. According to Chief Justice John Marshall, the Court established that the federal government had the sole right of negotiation with the Native American nations. Through the Revolutionary War and the treaties that followed, the United States believed it had earned exclusive rights to Indian land and took on the belief that the Indians themselves did not have the right to sell property to individuals. M'Intosh's claim, which was bought from from Congress, was superior to Johnson's claim, which was bought under the determined non-existent right of Indians to sell their land since it was granted by Congress. In his book, Echo-hawk goes into great detail about this case, however he goes on tangents about the backstory, and gives details to make the white man seem more commandeering, stating that the whole case was set up from the start without claiming how he got that information. Not to say that it wasn’t …show more content…
Hitchcock, which describes how a Kiowa chief had to fight to protect his land from white encroachment, land that was supposed to have already been protected by treaties. Lone Wolf and several other Indians had sued Interior Secretary Ethan Allen Hitchcock to stop the allotment of the Kiowa-Comanche- Apache Reservation located in El Reno, Oklahoma. According to article 12 of the Medicine Lodge treaty made in 1867, the cession of Indian land was forbidden unless approved by three-fourths of the tribe's male members. This was dismissed in the Court's opinion due to plenary power and the Jerome commission of 1889, which opened Indian Territory to be settled by the whites (Echo-hawk p175). In 1900 Congress had approved the 1892 allotment agreement that had been modified, and also which did not contain sufficient signatures (Clark). Lone Wolf and his supporters sought judicial relief in 1901; however their appeal came before the same justices who had decided Plessy v. Ferguson in 1986 that legalized racial segregation (Echo-Hawk p176). Their case was rejected by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. The reservation was quickly allotted. This paved the way for Indian hardships for years to come. Abuse of the Indian’s land, their resources, and rights increased in the years that followed. Indian nations sank deeper into a swamp of administration, subject to virtually unlimited federal authority. The plenary
That is to say, the Indians had never really undertaken those acts of possession that gave rise to a property right,” (Carol p17). This affirmed the District Court. According to Chief Justice John Marshall, the Court established that the federal government had the sole right of negotiation with the Native American nations. Through the Revolutionary War and the treaties that followed, the United States believed it had earned exclusive rights to Indian land and took on the belief that the Indians themselves did not have the right to sell property to individuals. M'Intosh's claim, which was bought from from Congress, was superior to Johnson's claim, which was bought under the determined non-existent right of Indians to sell their land since it was granted by Congress. In his book, Echo-hawk goes into great detail about this case, however he goes on tangents about the backstory, and gives details to make the white man seem more commandeering, stating that the whole case was set up from the start without claiming how he got that information. Not to say that it wasn’t …show more content…
Hitchcock, which describes how a Kiowa chief had to fight to protect his land from white encroachment, land that was supposed to have already been protected by treaties. Lone Wolf and several other Indians had sued Interior Secretary Ethan Allen Hitchcock to stop the allotment of the Kiowa-Comanche- Apache Reservation located in El Reno, Oklahoma. According to article 12 of the Medicine Lodge treaty made in 1867, the cession of Indian land was forbidden unless approved by three-fourths of the tribe's male members. This was dismissed in the Court's opinion due to plenary power and the Jerome commission of 1889, which opened Indian Territory to be settled by the whites (Echo-hawk p175). In 1900 Congress had approved the 1892 allotment agreement that had been modified, and also which did not contain sufficient signatures (Clark). Lone Wolf and his supporters sought judicial relief in 1901; however their appeal came before the same justices who had decided Plessy v. Ferguson in 1986 that legalized racial segregation (Echo-Hawk p176). Their case was rejected by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. The reservation was quickly allotted. This paved the way for Indian hardships for years to come. Abuse of the Indian’s land, their resources, and rights increased in the years that followed. Indian nations sank deeper into a swamp of administration, subject to virtually unlimited federal authority. The plenary