Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians But Were Afraid to Ask by Anton Treuer

Author:Anton Treuer [Treuer, Anton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780873518628
Publisher: BookMobile
Published: 2012-04-30T22:00:00+00:00

Why do Indians have treaty rights? What other rights do they have that differ from most people?

There are two primary reasons why Indians have certain rights that other Americans do not. The first has to do with treaties. When the U.S. federal government wanted land from Indians, negotiators had to pay Indians or promise Indians different things in order to obtain the land from them. Tribal leaders had a different concept of land ownership than that held by Europeans. When they advocated for their people, the main thing they insisted upon was the right to hunt, fish, gather, and travel on all of their lands, including soon-to-be-ceded lands. Often, the U.S. government obtained title to Indian land but agreed to allow Indian people to retain their right to use the land, even the land that was just sold. These rights, often referred to as usufructuary rights, are the basis of the treaty rights that many Native Americans enjoy today. They explain why hunting seasons and methods may vary and be more liberal for Indians on Indian land than they are for others governed exclusively by state laws and why tribal rights sometimes extend outside reservation boundaries. It is part of the payment the U.S. government made for the land.

The other major reason Indians have different rights is that state governments have no authority over reservations or tribal governments except for individual criminal cases, and that is only in the places where Public Law 280 is in effect. In the U.S. constitution, all rights not specifically granted to the federal government were reserved by the states. As a result, most of the basic regulations and civil laws that Americans deal with on a day-to-day basis come from state government rather than the federal government. Enrolled members living on reservations fall under a different jurisdictional framework.

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