Outline of Indian Affairs

By Shana R. Brown (descendant of the Yakama Nation), Shoreline School District

Tribal Independence (time unknown¹ - 1787)

• As many as 400 independent nations lived on the continent of North America before 1492 and its 'discovery.'
  • The continent was mapped, complete with landmarks and boundaries
  • The nations had distinct cultures, languages, and practices (to say Seminole Indian culture is the same as Nisqually Indian culture is like saying the Irish and Spanish people are the same)
  • The nations had organized governmental systems
  • The nations had organized commerce and trade. Celilo Falls on the Columbia River was often regarded as the "Wall Street" of the Northwest.

• Most tribes welcomed Europeans to settle on their land and entered into treaty agreements to determine boundaries and exchange European goods and friendship.
• Few Europeans could have survived without Indian assistance.
• Conflicts arose, usually between European nations who fought over control of the land. Each sought the help of neighboring tribes (e.g., the French and Indian War of 1763 where the English would not have won without their alliance with the powerful Iroquois Confederacy.)

Establishment of Federal Role and Trust Responsibility, Agreements Between Equals (1787 - 1828)

• Immediately following the Revolutionary War, the United States dealt with Indian tribes as sovereign nations. They were in no position to win any Indian wars over territory.
• The Northwest Ordinance of 1789 declared: "The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards Indians; their land and property shall never be taken from them without their consent." (Pevar 3)
• Policy was to continue to deal with Indian tribes by treaty by utilizing agents to negotiate treaties under the jurisdiction of the Department of War.
• Congress' position was to legally protect Indians from non-Indians, establishing its "trust responsibility" to the tribes.
• Trade and Intercourse Act of 1790 required that non-Indians must obtain a federal license to trade with Indians under penalty of prosecution (this included non-Indian procurement of land);
• Trade and Intercourse Act of 1793 prohibited non-Indian settlement on Indian lands, federal employees from trading with Indians, and "exempted Indians from complying with state trade regulations." (Pevar 3)
• Other Trade and Intercourse Acts provided federal compensation to injured Indians, but made no attempt to regulate conduct of Indians among themselves in Indian country.
• These laws, like the negotiated treaties, were rarely enforced, however.

¹ The once commonly believed theory that tribes migrated to North America via the Land Bridge has been challenged and arguably disproved on a number of occasions by fossil and other archeological evidence. See "1491" by Charles C Mann; The Atlantic Monthly; Mar 2002; Vol. 289, Iss. 3; pg. 41, 12 ", David Burton's "The Bering Land Bridge Theory Collapsing", Vine DeLoria, Jr.'s Red Earth, White Lies: Native Americans And The Myth Of Scientific Fact
See the video "Beneath Stilled Waters" interview of Ed Irby by Kirby Brumfield

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