Law

Policy eras

• 1763Colonial Contact and Early Treaty-MakingEarly federal policy regulated trade with tribes, described Native land title as a right of occupancy, and created the Office of Indian Affairs.
• 1830RemovalUnder the 1830 Indian Removal Act, about 100,000 people moved west by 1850, after coerced treaties or Army force, says the National Park Service.
• 1851ReservationThe United States set aside reservations by treaty, ended treaty-making in 1871, and then took reserved land, as the Black Hills show.
• 1887Allotment and AssimilationThe 1887 Dawes Act split reservations into allotments; a Nebraska encyclopedia says Indian-held land fell from 138 million to 48 million acres by 1934.
• 1934Indian New Deal and ReorganizationThe 1934 Indian Reorganization Act ended allotment, extended trust periods and let the Interior Secretary buy land in trust for tribes.
• 1953TerminationFrom 1953 Congress moved to end federal supervision of tribes; the National Archives counts 60 proceedings and over three million acres relinquished.
• 1970Self-DeterminationAfter Nixon's 1970 message rejecting termination, Congress returned Blue Lake's 48,000 acres, settled Alaska Native claims in 1971, and passed the 1975 self-determination law.
• 1988Self-GovernanceCongress added tribal self-governance, a federal repatriation law and trust-fund reform, and a class action over Indian trust accounts began.
• 2000Contemporary: Repair, Repatriation, Co-Stewardship, and Land BackRecent federal policy mixes apology, land consolidation, the National Bison Range transfer and hundreds of co-stewardship agreements, according to Interior.

Court cases

• 1810Fletcher v. PeckThe Court upheld a Georgia land grant despite bribery claims, and held Indian title did not bar the state's fee ownership.
• 1823Johnson v. M'IntoshPrivate purchases from Indian nations gave no title in U.S. courts; discovery gave the government the exclusive right to extinguish Indian title.
• 1831Cherokee Nation v. GeorgiaThe Court dismissed the Cherokee Nation's suit against Georgia, calling tribes 'domestic dependent nations' rather than foreign states.
• 1832Worcester v. GeorgiaIn 1832 the Court held Georgia's laws had no force in the Cherokee Nation and reversed the missionary Samuel Worcester's conviction.
• 1871The Cherokee TobaccoA later act of Congress can override an earlier treaty, so federal excise taxes applied in Cherokee territory despite the 1866 treaty.
• 1879Standing Bear v. CrookIn 1879 a federal judge held that an Indian is a "person" who may seek habeas corpus, and discharged Standing Bear and his companions.
• 1883Ex parte Crow DogFederal courts had no jurisdiction to punish one Lakota man for killing another on the reservation, the Court held in 1883.
• 1884Elk v. WilkinsThe Court held that an Indian born into a tribe, who then left it, was not a citizen under the Fourteenth Amendment.
• 1886Choctaw Nation v. United StatesThe Court awarded the Choctaw Nation payment for lands ceded in the 1830 treaty, using the Senate's award as its guide.
• 1886United States v. KagamaCongress could make crimes between Indians on reservations federal offenses, because it may govern tribes by statute rather than by treaty.
• 1896Talton v. MayesIn 1896 the Supreme Court held the Fifth Amendment's grand jury rule did not apply to a Cherokee Nation murder prosecution.
• 1896Ward v. Race HorseIn 1896 the Court held that a Bannock treaty hunting right gave no exemption from Wyoming's game laws after statehood.
• 1899Jones v. MeehanA treaty can itself grant individual land in fee to a chief, with no later act of Congress or patent, the Court held.
• 1903Lone Wolf v. HitchcockCongress could open Kiowa and Comanche reservation land without the three-fourths consent the 1867 Medicine Lodge Treaty required.
• 1905United States v. WinansIn 1905 the Court held the Yakima treaty's fishing right was reserved by the Indians, not granted, and burdened land later patented to others.
• 1908Winters v. United StatesIn 1908 the Court held that the agreement creating the Fort Belknap Reservation impliedly reserved enough Milk River water for irrigation.
• 1930Carpenter v. ShawOklahoma could not tax oil and gas royalties from Choctaw allotments, because the Atoka Agreement exempted allotted lands from taxation.
• 1935United States v. Creek NationIn 1935 the Court held the United States owed the Creek Nation compensation, plus 5 percent interest, for land lost to a survey error.
• 1937Shoshone Tribe v. United StatesIn 1937 the Court held that settling Arapahoes on the Shoshone reservation was a taking for which the Shoshones were owed just compensation.
• 1941United States v. Santa Fe Pacific R. Co.The Walapai's right of occupancy survived a railroad land grant, but their request for the 1883 reservation relinquished claims outside it, the Court held.
• 1942Seminole Nation v. United StatesIn 1942 the Supreme Court said the United States must be judged by "the most exacting fiduciary standards" when it handles Indian treaty money.
• 1942Tulee v. WashingtonIn 1942 the Court held Washington could impose conservation rules on Yakima treaty fishing but could not charge them state license fees.
• 1945Northwestern Bands of Shoshone Indians v. United StatesThe 1863 Treaty of Box Elder did not recognize Shoshone title to the land, so the Court denied compensation for its taking.
• 1955Tee-Hit-Ton Indians v. United StatesIn 1955 the Court held that Alaska Natives' unrecognized land occupancy could be taken without Fifth Amendment compensation.
• 1958Seneca Nation (Kinzua Dam litigation)Despite the 1794 treaty, a federal appeals court in 1958 let the Allegheny Reservoir flood Seneca land, finding Congress had authorized it.
• 1959Williams v. LeeIn 1959 the Court held an Arizona court could not hear a non-Indian trader's suit against Navajos over a reservation debt.
• 1960Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian NationThe Court allowed the Power Authority to take Tuscarora land bought in fee for a reservoir, with just compensation.
• 1962Seymour v. Superintendent of Washington State PenitentiaryA 1906 act opening Colville land to settlement did not dissolve the reservation, so Washington could not try a tribal member there.
• 1963Arizona v. CaliforniaThe Court divided Colorado River water among three states and held five Indian reservations carry reserved water for all practicably irrigable acreage.
• 1968Menominee Tribe of Indians v. United StatesMenominee hunting and fishing rights under the 1854 Treaty of Wolf River survived the 1954 Termination Act, the Court held in 1968.
• 1968Puyallup Tribe v. Department of Game (Puyallup I)In 1968 the Supreme Court held Washington may regulate treaty fishing for conservation if its rules are appropriate and do not discriminate against Indians.
• 1969Sohappy v. Smith (Belloni decision)A 1969 federal ruling limited Oregon's regulation of Columbia River treaty fishing and said the tribes were owed a fair share.
• 1973Mattz v. ArnettAn 1892 act opening the Klamath River Reservation to homesteaders did not end the reservation, so the land remained Indian country.
• 1973McClanahan v. Arizona State Tax CommissionArizona could not tax the income of a Navajo living and earning her income on the Navajo Reservation.
• 1974Morton v. MancariThe Bureau of Indian Affairs hiring preference for Indians was not repealed by the 1972 anti-discrimination law and is not racial discrimination.
• 1974Oneida Indian Nation v. County of Oneida (Oneida I)In 1974 the Supreme Court unanimously held that the Oneidas' claim to land ceded to New York in 1795 arises under federal law.
• 1974United States v. Washington (Boldt decision)In 1974 Judge Boldt held that "in common with" lets western Washington treaty tribes take up to half the harvestable fish.
• 1975DeCoteau v. District County CourtAn 1891 act ended the Lake Traverse Reservation, so South Dakota courts had jurisdiction over tribal members on the opened lands.
• 1975Joint Tribal Council of the Passamaquoddy Tribe v. MortonIn 1975 the First Circuit held the Nonintercourse Act covers the Passamaquoddy Tribe and creates a federal trust relationship over its land claims.
• 1976Bryan v. Itasca CountyPublic Law 280 gave states criminal jurisdiction and civil courts for private disputes, but did not let them tax reservation Indians.
• 1977Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. KneipActs of 1904, 1907 and 1910 diminished the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, the Court held in 1977, even without the consent the 1868 treaty required.
• 1978Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian TribeIn 1978 the Supreme Court held that tribal courts have no inherent power to try non-Indians for crimes unless Congress allows it.
• 1978Santa Clara Pueblo v. MartinezThe Indian Civil Rights Act did not allow federal civil suits against Santa Clara Pueblo over its membership rule, the Court held in 1978.
• 1978United States v. WheelerA tribe prosecuting its own member acts as a separate sovereign, so a tribal conviction does not bar a federal trial, the Court held.
• 1979Mashpee Tribe v. New Seabury Corp.A jury found the Mashpee were not a tribe in 1976, and the First Circuit affirmed dismissal of their land claim.
• 1979Washington v. Washington State Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel Ass'nIn 1979 the Court held the 1850s treaties secure tribes a share of each fish run, divided in roughly equal shares.
• 1980United States v. Sioux Nation of IndiansIn 1980 the Supreme Court held the 1877 Act took the Black Hills from the Sioux Nation, requiring just compensation with interest.
• 1980White Mountain Apache Tribe v. BrackerIn 1980 the Court held that federal law pre-empted Arizona taxes on a non-Indian company hauling tribal timber on a reservation.
• 1981Montana v. United StatesThe Crow Tribe could not regulate non-Indian hunting on fee land in its reservation, and the Big Horn riverbed went to Montana.
• 1982Merrion v. Jicarilla Apache TribeThe Jicarilla Apache Tribe has inherent power to tax oil and gas companies extracting minerals from its reservation.
• 1983New Mexico v. Mescalero Apache TribeNew Mexico could not apply its hunting and fishing laws to non-members on the Mescalero Apache Reservation, because federal law pre-empted them.
• 1984Solem v. BartlettIn 1984 a unanimous Court held that the 1908 Cheyenne River Act opened reservation land to homesteaders without diminishing the reservation.
• 1985Montana v. Blackfeet TribeMontana could not tax the Blackfeet Tribe's oil and gas royalties from leases issued under the 1938 mineral leasing act.
• 1985Oneida County v. Oneida Indian Nation (Oneida II)In 1985 the Supreme Court held that the Oneidas may sue under federal common law for land conveyed to New York in 1795.
• 1985Oregon Dept. of Fish & Wildlife v. Klamath Indian TribeThe Klamath Tribe's 1901 cession ended its special right to hunt and fish free of Oregon's rules on ceded land, the Court held.
• 1985United States v. DannIn 1985 the Court held that depositing a $26 million claims award in a Treasury account for the Shoshone Tribe counted as "payment."
• 1987California v. Cabazon Band of Mission IndiansState and county gambling laws could not be enforced against tribal bingo and card games, because they conflicted with federal and tribal interests.
• 1987Hodel v. IrvingA federal law sending tiny fractional land interests to the tribe at death, with no payment, was an unconstitutional taking.
• 1988Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Ass'nThe Court held the government may build a road and allow logging on its own land despite harm to Native religious practice.
• 1989Brendale v. Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Indian NationThe county could zone non-member fee land in the open area, while the Yakima Nation kept zoning power in the closed area.
• 1990Employment Division v. SmithOregon could deny unemployment benefits to workers fired for sacramental peyote use, the Court held; Congress later acted to protect that use.
• 1994Hagen v. UtahCongress diminished the Uintah Reservation when it opened land to settlers in 1905, so Utah had criminal jurisdiction in Myton.
• 1996Seminole Tribe of Florida v. FloridaIn 1996 the Court held that Congress cannot use the Indian Commerce Clause to let tribes sue states in federal court.
• 1997Strate v. A-1 ContractorsIn 1997 a unanimous Court held a tribal court could not hear a crash suit between non-members on a state highway crossing the reservation.
• 1998Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie Tribal GovernmentLand the Venetie tribe held under the 1971 Alaska settlement act is not 'Indian country,' so the tribe could not tax a contractor there.
• 1998Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma v. Manufacturing Technologies, Inc.Tribes are immune from suit on contracts, even commercial ones made off the reservation, unless Congress or the tribe allows suit.
• 1998South Dakota v. Yankton Sioux TribeIn 1998 a unanimous Court held that an 1894 act ratifying the Yankton Sioux cession diminished the 1858 reservation.
• 1999Minnesota v. Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa IndiansThe Chippewa kept their 1837 Treaty hunting and fishing rights; an 1850 order, the 1855 Treaty and Minnesota statehood did not end them.
• 2001Idaho v. United StatesThe Court held the lakebed and part of the riverbed within the Coeur d'Alene reservation belong to the United States in trust, not Idaho.
• 2001Nevada v. HicksA tribal court had no jurisdiction over state game wardens sued for searching a tribal member's home for an off-reservation crime.
• 2003United States v. Navajo Nation (Navajo I)In 2003 the Court held the Navajo Nation could not collect damages over the Interior Secretary's role in a coal royalty dispute.
• 2004United States v. LaraIn 2004 the Court held Congress could restore tribal power to prosecute nonmember Indians, so a tribal conviction did not bar a federal prosecution.
• 2005Cayuga Indian Nation of New York v. PatakiThe Second Circuit barred the Cayugas' land claim against New York under laches, reversing a $248 million award after the Sherrill decision.
• 2005City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New YorkThe Oneida Nation could not revive tribal sovereignty over old reservation land it bought back, so the city could tax it.
• 2008Navajo Nation v. U.S. Forest ServiceThe en banc Ninth Circuit held that artificial snow from recycled wastewater on a mountain sacred to tribes was not a RFRA 'substantial burden'.
• 2008Plains Commerce Bank v. Long Family Land & Cattle Co.In 2008 the Court held a tribal court could not hear a discrimination claim over a non-Indian bank's sale of its own fee land.
• 2009Carcieri v. SalazarThe Court held the Interior Secretary can take land into trust only for tribes that were under federal jurisdiction in 1934.
• 2009Cobell v. Salazar (individual Indian trust litigation)The D.C. Circuit agreed Interior breached its duty to account for Indian trust money but vacated the district court's remedy.
• 2011United States v. Jicarilla Apache NationThe Court let the government keep its legal advice privileged from a tribe in 2011, because the Indian trust differs from a private trust.
• 2013Adoptive Couple v. Baby GirlThe Court held the Indian Child Welfare Act did not block an adoption over a father who never had custody.
• 2014Michigan v. Bay Mills Indian CommunityTribal sovereign immunity barred Michigan's suit to shut down a casino the Bay Mills Indian Community opened on off-reservation land.
• 2016Dollar General Corp. v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw IndiansAn evenly divided Supreme Court left in place a ruling that a Choctaw tribal court could hear a tort suit against a non-member company.
• 2016Mashpee Wampanoag trust-land litigation (Littlefield v. Dept. of the Interior line)Courts held in 2016 and 2020 that Interior could not take land into trust for the Mashpee Wampanoag; Interior reversed course in 2021.
• 2016Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin v. United StatesThe Court unanimously refused to extend the claims deadline for the Menominee Tribe while a related class action by other tribes was pending.
• 2016Nebraska v. ParkerAn 1882 act opening Omaha land to settlers did not shrink the reservation, so the village of Pender lies within it.
• 2017Murphy v. RoyalThe Tenth Circuit held Congress never disestablished the Creek Reservation, so Oklahoma lacked jurisdiction to try Patrick Murphy for murder.
• 2018Washington v. United States (culverts case)An equally divided Supreme Court in 2018 left in place a ruling that Washington must fix state culverts that violate tribal treaty fishing rights.
• 2019Herrera v. WyomingThe Crow Tribe's 1868 treaty hunting right survived Wyoming statehood, and Bighorn National Forest is not categorically 'occupied'.
• 2019Washington State Dept. of Licensing v. Cougar Den, Inc.In 2019 a divided Court held the 1855 Yakama treaty's right to travel on public highways bars Washington's fuel-import tax on a Yakama business.
• 2020McGirt v. OklahomaLand promised to the Creek Nation by treaty remains a reservation, so Oklahoma could not prosecute a tribal member there.
• 2020Sharp v. MurphyOn July 9, 2020 the Supreme Court affirmed the Tenth Circuit in Sharp v. Murphy in one paragraph, for the reasons given in McGirt.
• 2021United States v. CooleyIn 2021 a unanimous Court held that tribal police may temporarily detain and search non-Indians on public rights-of-way within a reservation.
• 2021Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis ReservationIn 2021 the Court held Alaska Native Corporations count as "Indian tribes" under federal law and could share CARES Act relief money.
• 2022Oklahoma v. Castro-HuertaIn 2022 the Supreme Court held that Oklahoma may prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes against Indians in Indian country, alongside the federal government.
• 2022Ysleta del Sur Pueblo v. TexasIn 2022 the Court held the Restoration Act bans on the Pueblo's lands only gaming that Texas also bans, not gaming Texas regulates.
• 2023Arizona v. Navajo NationThe 1868 Navajo treaty reserved water for the reservation but did not require the United States to take steps to secure more.
• 2023Haaland v. BrackeenThe Court rejected the constitutional challenges to the Indian Child Welfare Act that it reached; the equal protection claim lacked a plaintiff with standing.
• 2023Lac du Flambeau Band v. CoughlinThe Bankruptcy Code abrogates tribal sovereign immunity, so a tribe's payday-loan business could be held to the automatic stay.
• 2024Apache Stronghold v. United States (Oak Flat; Chi'chil Bildagoteel)The en banc Ninth Circuit affirmed denial of an injunction against the Oak Flat land transfer, rejecting religious freedom and treaty claims.
• 2024Becerra v. San Carlos Apache TribeThe Indian Health Service must pay contract support costs when tribes spend insurance 'program income' on health care they took over.
• 2025Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe v. Madore (Mille Lacs County)In 2025 the Eighth Circuit dismissed the Mille Lacs law-enforcement appeals as moot and vacated the district court's orders, leaving the reservation question open.
• 2026Chinook Indian Nation v. BurgumThe Supreme Court declined on March 23, 2026 to hear the Chinook Indian Nation's bid to have federal courts recognize the tribe.
• 2026Lopez v. United States (Oak Flat application)Justice Kagan denied an emergency application by Apache plaintiffs to stop the Oak Flat land exchange on March 19, 2026.
• 2026Oak Flat land-exchange litigation, Ninth Circuit (2026)On September 29, 2026 the Ninth Circuit denied rehearing en banc in the Oak Flat appeals, with Chief Judge Murguia and others dissenting.

Statutes

• 1789Northwest Ordinance (reenacted 1789)The Northwest Ordinance promised Native lands would never be taken without consent; Congress re-enacted it in 1789, and treaties followed.
• 1790Trade and Intercourse (Nonintercourse) Acts, 1790-1802Starting in 1790, Congress barred purchases of Indian land without federal approval, the root of the Nonintercourse Act used in later land claims.
• 1819Civilization Fund ActThe 1819 Civilization Fund Act set aside $10,000 a year to teach farming and schooling to tribes next to white settlements, aiming at assimilation.
• 1830Indian Removal ActThe Indian Removal Act of 1830 let the President swap eastern tribal lands for districts west of the Mississippi River.
• 1834Trade and Intercourse Act of 1834The 1834 Trade and Intercourse Act made any purchase of Indian land invalid unless made by federal treaty, a rule still codified today.
• 1851Indian Appropriations Act of 1851The February 1851 Indian appropriations act reorganized the Indian Department and extended trade-and-intercourse laws to New Mexico and Utah.
• 1871Act of March 3, 1871 (end of treaty-making)A one-sentence rider in the March 3, 1871 Indian appropriations act ended new treaty-making with tribes but kept existing treaties in force.
• 1885Major Crimes ActCongress's 1885 Major Crimes Act put serious crimes by Indians in Indian country into federal courts, a power the Supreme Court upheld in 1886.
• 1887General Allotment (Dawes) ActThe 1887 Dawes Act let the President divide reservations into individual allotments and buy the leftover land for settlers.
• 1898Curtis ActThe 1898 Curtis Act abolished tribal courts in Indian Territory and ordered the Dawes Commission to allot Five Tribes land.
• 1906Antiquities Act of 1906The Antiquities Act of 1906 lets the President proclaim national monuments on federal land; its limits have been contested.
• 1906Burke ActThe 1906 Burke Act let the Interior Secretary end trust protection of an allotment early if he judged the owner competent.
• 1924Indian Citizenship ActThe 1924 Indian Citizenship Act declared all non-citizen Native people born in the United States citizens without touching tribal property rights.
• 1924Pueblo Lands ActThe 1924 Pueblo Lands Act set up a board to sort out non-Indian claims on New Mexico Pueblo land grants.
• 1934Indian Reorganization Act (Wheeler-Howard Act)The 1934 Indian Reorganization Act stopped allotment and let the Interior Secretary buy land to hold in trust for tribes.
• 1944Flood Control Act of 1944 (Pick-Sloan Plan)The Flood Control Act of 1944 approved the Pick-Sloan Missouri River plans; dams built under it flooded reservation land of several Native nations.
• 1946Indian Claims Commission ActThe 1946 Indian Claims Commission Act let tribes bring claims against the United States, including claims for land taken without agreed payment.
• 1953House Concurrent Resolution 108 (termination policy)House Concurrent Resolution 108 in 1953 declared Congress's sense that named tribes should be freed from federal supervision at the earliest possible time.
• 1953Public Law 280Public Law 280 (1953) gave six states criminal and civil jurisdiction in Indian country; a 1968 law later required tribal consent for new assumptions.
• 1954Klamath Termination ActCongress ended federal supervision of the Klamath Tribes in 1954, then restored federal recognition in 1986.
• 1954Menominee Termination ActThe 1954 Menominee Termination Act ended federal supervision of the tribe, but the Supreme Court held treaty hunting and fishing rights survived.
• 1956Indian Relocation Act (Adult Vocational Training Act)The 1956 'Indian Relocation Act' funded vocational training for adult Indians; the relocation program to cities was already running.
• 1966National Historic Preservation Act (Section 106; 1992 TCP amendments)The 1966 Historic Preservation Act makes federal agencies weigh effects on historic places, and since 1992 places of religious and cultural importance to tribes can be covered.
• 1968Indian Civil Rights ActThe 1968 Indian Civil Rights Act applied many Bill of Rights protections to tribal governments and tied state jurisdiction to tribal consent.
• 1970Blue Lake Return Act (Taos Pueblo)The 1970 Blue Lake law put about 48,000 acres of Carson National Forest land into trust for Taos Pueblo.
• 1971Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA)ANCSA in 1971 extinguished Alaska Native aboriginal land claims in exchange for corporation-held land and money, not reservations.
• 1973Menominee Restoration ActThe 1973 Menominee Restoration Act repealed the termination law and restored the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin as a federally recognized tribe.
• 1975Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA)The 1975 Indian Self-Determination Act let tribes take over and run federal Indian programs themselves under contract.
• 1978American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA)The 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act set a policy to protect Native worship and site access; the Supreme Court found no enforceable rights.
• 1978Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)The 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act gave tribes a say in custody cases; in 2023 the Supreme Court declined to disturb Congress's authority.
• 1978Rhode Island Indian Claims Settlement ActThe 1978 Rhode Island Indian Claims Settlement Act gave the Narragansett about 1,800 acres in exchange for giving up land claims.
• 1979Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA)ARPA, signed in 1979, requires permits to dig on public and Indian lands, tribal consent on Indian lands, and penalties for looting.
• 1980Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA)ANILCA in 1980 added over 100 million acres of Alaska conservation land and set a rural, not Native-specific, subsistence priority on federal lands.
• 1980Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act (MICSA)Congress's 1980 Maine settlement ratified past land transfers and set up funds for land purchases, but tied Maine's tribes to state law.
• 1983Indian Land Consolidation Act (ILCA)The 1983 Indian Land Consolidation Act made tiny fractional allotment interests escheat to the tribe; the Supreme Court struck that rule down twice.
• 1988Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA)The 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act set federal rules for tribal gaming on 'Indian lands' and required state compacts for casino-style games.
• 1990Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)NAGPRA, signed November 16, 1990, made museums and federal agencies inventory Native remains and return them to descendants and tribes.
• 1993Apology Resolution (Pub. L. 103-150), 1993Congress's 1993 Apology Resolution acknowledged the 1893 overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii but stated it settles no claims.
• 1993Catawba Indian Tribe of South Carolina Land Claims Settlement ActThe 1993 Catawba settlement ended a claim to about 140,000 acres in South Carolina and restored the Tribe's federal trust relationship.
• 2004American Indian Probate Reform Act (AIPRA)The 2004 American Indian Probate Reform Act created a uniform federal probate code for trust land to curb fractionated ownership.
• 2010Claims Resolution Act of 2010 (Cobell settlement; Land Buy-Back Program)The 2010 Claims Resolution Act funded the Cobell settlement, including $1.9 billion to buy back fractionated land interests for tribes.
• 2010Tribal Law and Order Act (TLOA)The 2010 Tribal Law and Order Act let tribal courts impose up to three-year sentences if they provide added protections to defendants.
• 2012Helping Expedite and Advance Responsible Tribal Homeownership (HEARTH) Act of 2012The 2012 HEARTH Act lets tribes with Interior-approved leasing rules lease trust land without case-by-case Secretary approval.
• 2013Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (tribal provisions)The 2013 Violence Against Women Act let participating tribes prosecute non-Indians for domestic violence, partly answering the Supreme Court's 1978 Oliphant ruling.
• 2016Bears Ears National Monument Proclamation (Obama)Proclamation 9558 in December 2016 created Bears Ears National Monument on about 1.35 million acres and a commission of five tribes.
• 2017Bears Ears reductions and restoration (2017 and 2021)Bears Ears was cut by about 1.15 million acres in 2017 and restored to about 1.36 million acres in 2021.
• 2022Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization of 2022 (tribal provisions)The 2022 Violence Against Women Act expanded tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians from domestic violence to a list of nine covered crimes.
• 2023Land Acquisitions rule (25 C.F.R. part 151, fee-to-trust)Interior's 2023 rule rewrote the fee-to-trust process, aiming to make land-into-trust faster and cheaper for tribes.
• 2023NAGPRA regulations (43 C.F.R. part 10), 2023 revisionInterior's 2023 NAGPRA rule gave museums deadlines to return Native remains and objects, and required deference to tribes' traditional knowledge.
• 2025Lumbee Tribe federal recognition (NDAA enactment)In December 2025 Congress extended full federal recognition to the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, undoing a 1956 limit.
• 2026Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante Proclamations (Trump)July 2026 proclamations cut Bears Ears to 121,096 acres and Grand Staircase-Escalante to 181,541 acres, and ended the tribal commission.
• 2026Solicitor's Opinion M-37087 (Alaska fee-to-trust)A February 2026 Interior Solicitor's opinion withdrew the 2022 finding that the Secretary can take Alaska land into trust.

Doctrines

• aboriginal titleAboriginal title is Native nations' right to land held before European arrival; unrecognized title can be ended without payment.
• abrogationAbrogation is Congress overriding a treaty: Lone Wolf (1903) allowed it, but modern courts require clear evidence Congress chose to break the treaty.
• agreementsAfter 1871 Congress stopped making treaties with tribes and instead ratified negotiated agreements as statutes, which courts still treat as binding law.
• allotmentAllotment divided tribal reservations into individual parcels under the 1887 Dawes Act and opened the unallotted remainder to purchase.
• assimilationFederal assimilation policy worked through laws and boarding schools; a 2024 Interior report says the schools were run to forcibly assimilate Indian children.
• canons of constructionCourts read ambiguous treaties in favor of tribes and as the Indians would have understood them, rules the Supreme Court has repeated for more than a century.
• citizenshipElk v. Wilkins (1884) held the Fourteenth Amendment did not make Native people citizens at birth; Congress declared all remaining non-citizen Indians citizens in 1924.
• civil jurisdictionTribal civil power is strongest over members; Williams v. Lee (1959) protected it, and Montana (1981) limited it over non-members.
• claimsThe 1946 Indian Claims Commission let tribes press land and treaty claims against the United States for money, as in the Sioux case.
• co managementBears Ears made tribes partners in managing a national monument through a Commission; the Coalition says a July 2026 proclamation ended it.
• consultationExecutive Order 13175 (2000) told federal agencies to consult tribal officials on policies affecting tribes, but created no enforceable rights.
• criminal jurisdictionWho may prosecute a crime in Indian country depends on who the offender and victim are and where it happened.
• diminishmentOnly Congress can shrink a reservation, and courts require a clear statement; Solem, Hagen and Parker show how that test works.
• discoveryJohnson v. M'Intosh (1823) said discovery gave Europeans, then the United States, title subject to Native occupancy; the Vatican repudiated the doctrine in 2023.
• disestablishmentDisestablishment means Congress ended a reservation entirely; courts require clear intent from Congress, and McGirt (2020) held the Creek Reservation was never disestablished.
• domestic dependent nationsIn 1831 Marshall called tribes 'domestic dependent nations' whose relation to the United States 'resembles that of a ward to his guardian.'
• dual sovereigntyBecause tribes and the United States are separate sovereigns, Wheeler (1978) allowed a federal trial after a tribal conviction for the same incident.
• federal recognitionFederal recognition acknowledges a tribe's political existence; Congress, Interior or a court can grant it, and only Congress can end it.
• fractionationFractionation divides allotted Indian land among ever more heirs; Interior says some tracts now have hundreds or over a thousand owners.
• gamingAfter California v. Cabazon (1987) barred California from regulating tribal bingo, Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988.
• guardianshipThe 'guardian and ward' idea in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia has been used to justify federal power and to demand federal fiduciary care.
• icwaThe 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act set federal standards for removing Native children from families; the Supreme Court left it standing in 2023.
• implicit divestitureUnder implicit divestiture, the Supreme Court holds tribes lost some powers, such as trying non-Indians, by their dependent status unless Congress restores them.
• indian countryFederal law defines 'Indian country' as reservations, dependent Indian communities and Indian allotments; the definition decides which government's laws apply.
• indian titleIndian title is a tribe's right to occupy land, which only the United States may extinguish; courts enforce it through the Nonintercourse Act.
• inherent sovereigntyTribes' powers of self-government predate the Constitution and are not delegated by Congress, though the Supreme Court says Congress can limit or end them.
• lachesLaches bars claims after long delay; courts applied it to the Oneida sovereignty bid in Sherrill and the Cayuga land claim.
• land exchangeCongress authorized the Oak Flat land exchange with Resolution Copper in 2014; Apache Stronghold's religious-freedom challenge failed, with two justices dissenting.
• land into trustLand into trust is the process by which the United States holds land for a tribe or Indian, using Interior's IRA section 5 authority.
• land restorationCongress can return land to tribal ownership by statute; the 1970 Blue Lake Act restored 48,000 acres to Taos Pueblo, according to the Pueblo.
• last in timeA later federal statute prevails over an earlier inconsistent treaty, a last-in-time rule the Supreme Court applied to Native nations in The Cherokee Tobacco.
• montana ruleMontana v. United States (1981) set a presumption against tribal civil power over non-members on non-Indian fee land, with two exceptions.
• nonintercourseThe Nonintercourse Act, 25 U.S.C. 177, voids any purchase of Indian land not made by federal treaty or convention, and still anchors land claims.
• plenary powerCongress claims 'plenary' power over Indian affairs, upheld since Kagama and Lone Wolf; Justice Thomas has questioned it, and the Brackeen Court said it has borders.
• political statusMorton v. Mancari (1974) held that the BIA's Indian hiring preference is political, based on tribal membership, not an impermissible racial classification.
• preemptionFederal law displaces state law in Indian country when state action conflicts with federal and tribal interests, under White Mountain Apache v. Bracker (1980).
• recognized titleWhere Congress by treaty or statute recognized that Indians would hold land permanently, taking it requires compensation, as in the Sioux Nation case.
• religious freedomLyng (1988) rejected a Native challenge to a Forest Service road, and Oak Flat's religious-freedom challenge was denied Supreme Court review in 2025.
• removalThe 1830 Indian Removal Act let the President exchange eastern tribal lands for land west of the Mississippi, leading to the Trail of Tears.
• repatriationRepatriation is the return of ancestors and cultural items to descendants and tribes; NAGPRA made it a federal duty in 1990.
• reservation systemFrom about 1850 the United States confined tribes to reservations created by treaty, statute and executive order, replacing removal to one Indian territory.
• reserved rightsTreaties are 'a grant of right from' tribes, not to them: reserved hunting and fishing rights survived cessions, statehood and even termination.
• reserved water rightsUnder the Winters doctrine (1908), creating a reservation implicitly reserves enough water for its purposes; Arizona v. California set the measure.
• sacred sitesSacred-site protection on federal land rests mainly on Executive Order 13007 and consultation laws; Lyng (1988) found no enforceable right under AIRFA.
• self determinationSelf-determination became federal policy with Nixon's July 8, 1970 message rejecting termination, and law with the Indian Self-Determination Act of January 1975.
• sovereign immunityCourts treat Native nations as immune from most lawsuits unless Congress clearly ends that protection or the nation waives it.
• state jurisdictionThe Supreme Court has swung between shielding reservations from state law in Worcester and Williams v. Lee, and allowing state prosecutions in Castro-Huerta.
• statehoodThe Court once said a state's admission ended a tribe's treaty hunting right; Mille Lacs (1999) and Herrera (2019) rejected that reasoning.
• subsistenceIn 1980 Congress put a priority for subsistence hunting and fishing by rural Alaska residents, Native and non-Native, into Title VIII of ANILCA.
• takingsNative land held by treaty must be paid for if taken (Sioux Nation, 1980), but unrecognized 'Indian title' is not compensable (Tee-Hit-Ton, 1955).
• taxationStates cannot tax reservation Indians' reservation income, but tribes and states can both tax non-Indian oil producers on a reservation.
• terminationCongress moved in 1953 to end federal supervision of tribes; the Supreme Court later held the Menominee Termination Act left treaty hunting rights intact.
• treaty fishing rightsTreaties that reserved fishing rights have been read as rights the tribes kept, not gifts: Winans (1905), Fishing Vessel (1979) and Mille Lacs (1999).
• treaty makingCongress ended new treaty-making with tribes in 1871, after the Senate had ratified 370 treaties, while promising not to impair existing ones.
• treaty trust claimCourts have refused to read treaties as creating enforceable federal trust duties beyond their text, in Arizona v. Navajo Nation and Apache Stronghold.
• trust doctrineThe 1831 'ward and guardian' description became a trust relationship that courts enforce for damages mainly where a statute or regulation creates the duty.