Federal Indian Law

This course will review and analyze the relationship between the Unites States Government and the Native Indian Tribes within its border. The U.S. Constitution under Article I Sec. 8 Paragraph 3 grants the U.S. Congress the authority “To regulate Commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with Indian Tribes.” Pursuant to this clause, the Federal Government has the primary responsibility for dealing with Indian Tribes. The law and U.S. public policy relating to the Native Nations and its members has evolved continuously since the founding of the United States.

This course will require closer study of United States history from its founding to the present day. This history is dynamic and will require a strong analytical critical challenge for the failures of the Federal Government in pursuing its policy trying to protect and recognize cultural differences and political autonomy. It should be noted that we shall view the historical relationship with a critical edge in seeking to process policy and enforceable law.

We shall therefore be studying Federal Indian Law rather than Tribal Law, although we may contrast the adoption of several provisions of the Iroquois Confederacy tradition by the Founding Fathers.

We shall therefore be required to reconsider the development of history and the policy adopted by treaties and federal statutes beginning with the first ratified treaty between the United States and an Indian Tribe: The Treaty of Fort Pitt with the Delaware Nation Sept. 17, 1778, 7 Stat. 13.

The historical dimension of the relationship between the Indian Tribe and the Federal Government cannot be ignored. It is the underpinning of this course and viewed through the spectrum of Federal Treaties, Statutes, and Supreme Court opinions.