nonintercourse

What happened

The Nonintercourse Act grew from the Trade and Intercourse Acts that began in 1790 and now sits at 25 U.S.C. 177. It says: "No purchase, grant, lease, or other conveyance of lands, or of any title or claim thereto, from any Indian nation or tribe of Indians, shall be of any validity in law or equity, unless the same be made by treaty or convention entered into pursuant to the Constitution." A person who tries to negotiate such a purchase without federal authority is liable to a $1,000 penalty.

The Supreme Court described the early versions in Oneida II (1985): the 1790 Act "prohibited the conveyance of Indian land except where such conveyances were entered pursuant to the treaty power of the United States," and the stronger 1793 version added criminal penalties. In that case, the Oneida tribes argued that a 1795 agreement by which New York bought their land violated the 1793 Act. The Court held they have "a federal common-law right of action for violation of their possessory rights."

The Act also drove settlements. In the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980, Congress recited that tribes were asserting claims for lands originally transferred in violation of law, "including, but without limitation, the Trade and Intercourse Act of 1790."

Courts have also limited what tribes can win in these disputes. In City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation (2005), the Court held that long delay and settled expectations could bar a tribe's attempt to revive sovereignty over repurchased land.

Good to know. Section 177 is quoted from the current U.S. Code, whose wording differs slightly from the 1834 original.

Summarized with AI assistance from 5 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error