Trade and Intercourse (Nonintercourse) Acts, 1790-1802

What happened

In 1790, at the urging of President Washington and Secretary of War Henry Knox, Congress passed the first Indian Trade and Intercourse Act. The Supreme Court, in Oneida II (1985), describes its core: the Act "prohibited the conveyance of Indian land except where such conveyances were entered pursuant to the treaty power of the United States." The same Act regulated trade. Its first section said no person may carry on trade or intercourse with the Indian tribes without a license from the superintendent or another person the President appoints.

Congress strengthened the rule in 1793. As Oneida II quotes it, the 1793 Act provided that no purchase or grant of lands from any Indians "shall be of any validity in law or equity, unless the same be made by a treaty or convention entered into pursuant to the constitution," in the presence and with the approval of United States commissioners. Unlike the 1790 version, the new statute included criminal penalties. Congress passed further versions in 1796, 1799 and 1802.

The laws mattered long after they were passed. Oneida II involved a 1795 New York purchase of Oneida land that, the tribes alleged, violated the 1793 Act. The Court held the tribes have a federal common-law right of action for violation of their possessory rights, and that the Nonintercourse Acts did not preempt it. In 1980, Congress cited the 1790 Act when it settled the Maine land claims.

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