Full Description
"Federal Indian law . . . is a loosely related collection of past and present acts of Congress, treaties and agreements, executive orders, administrative rulings, and judicial opinions, connected only by the fact that law in some form has been applied haphazardly to American Indians over the course of several centuries. . . . Indians in their tribal relation and Indian tribes in their relation to the federal government hang suspended in a legal wonderland."
In this book, two prominent scholars of American Indian law and politics undertake a full historical examination of the relationship between Indians and the United States Constitution that explains the present state of confusion and inconsistent application in U.S. Indian law. The authors examine all sections of the Constitution that explicitly and implicitly apply to Indians and discuss how they have been interpreted and applied from the early republic up to the present. They convincingly argue that the Constitution does not provide any legal rights for American Indians and that the treaty-making process should govern relations between Indian nations and the federal government.
Contents
Introduction
Chapter I. Europeans and the New World
Chapter II. The Articles of Confederation
Chapter III. The Constitution and American Indian Tribes
The Federalist Papers
Explicit Clauses Dealing with Indians
Implicit Clauses Dealing with Indians
Chapter IV. The Relationship of Indian Tribes to the Three Branches of the Federal Government
Indians and the Executive Branch
Indians and the Legislative Branch
Indians and the Judicial Branch
Chapter V. The Historical Development of Constitutional Clauses
The Treaty-making Power
The Power to Regulate Commerce
The Property Clause
Miscellaneous Constitutional Clauses
Chapter VI. The Constitutional Amendments
The Bill of Rights
The First Amendment: The Establishment of Religion
The First Amendment: The Free Exercise Clause
The Lyng Decision
The Smith Decision
The First Amendment: Freedoms of Speech and Assembly
The Fourth Amendment: Search and Seizure
The Fifth Amendment: Double Jeopardy
The Fifth Amendment: Due Process
The Fifth Amendment: Just Compensation
The Sixth Amendment: Legal Counsel
Chapter VII. The Later Constitutional Amendments
The Thirteenth Amendment
The Fourteenth Amendment: Citizenship and Due Process
The Fifteenth Amendment
The Sixteenth Amendment
The Prohibition Amendments
The Twenty-sixth Amendment
Chapter VIII. The Status of Indian Tribes and the Constitution
Notes
References
Index of Cases
General Index
