Colonial Contact and Early Treaty-Making

What happened

In the early United States, relations with Native nations ran through trade rules, treaties and a growing claim by the federal government that only it could buy Native land.

Congress set the first framework on July 22, 1790, in "An Act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes." The first section barred anyone from trading with Indians without a license issued by a superintendent or other person the President appointed.

The Supreme Court described the land side of the policy in Johnson v. M'Intosh (1823). Chief Justice Marshall wrote that European nations respected the right of natives as occupants but asserted the ultimate dominion to be in themselves, and that grants conveyed a title subject only to the Indian right of occupancy. The facts of the case, as set out in the record before the Court, also state that before European settlement the territory was held in full sovereignty by independent tribes or nations who were the absolute owners and proprietors of the soil. Marshall wrote that conquest gives a title which the courts of the conqueror cannot deny.

On the administrative side, the National Archives says a bureau-level Office of Indian Affairs was established in the War Department by order of Secretary of War John C. Calhoun on March 11, 1824. The Office of Indian Trade, set up in 1806, had been abolished in 1822.

Good to know. The view that tribes owned the soil comes from the facts stated in the case record, not from the Court's holding. Cession totals from this period are disputed.

Summarized with AI assistance from 4 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error