Tribal government

“ The Tribe's treaty rights must be read in light of those subsequent alienations, it being unlikely that Congress intended to subject non-Indian purchasers to tribal jurisdiction when an avowed purpose of the allotment policy was to destroy tribal government. ”

“ They might be selected on the reservation of the tribe or anywhere else on the public domain. This allotment of land carried with it all the rights, privileges and immunities of American citizenship. In case the Indian should not care to take up a homestead, he could still become a citizen if he took up his residence apart from the tribe and adopted civilized habits. The purpose was to break up the tribal organization which had stood so greatly in the way of the beneficent purposes of the government, and to convert each Indian into an individual citizen of the United States. ”

“ To enhance our efforts to help Indian nations be self-governing, self-supporting, and self-reliant, my Administration will continue to honor tribal sovereignty by working on a government-to-government basis with American Indians and Alaska Natives. We will honor the rights of Indian tribes and work to protect and enhance tribal resources. ”

“ This double condition of sovereignty and wardship involves increasing difficulties and absurdities, as the traditional chieftain, losing his hold upon his tribe, ceases to be distinguished for anything except for the lion's share of goods and moneys which the Government endeavors to send, through him, to his nominal subjects, and as the necessities of the Indians, pressed on every side by civilization, require more help and greater discrimination in the manner of distributing the tribal funds. ”

“ Tribal government The term “tribal government” means any Indian tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community, including any Alaska Native village or regional or village corporation as defined in or established pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (85 Stat. 688; 43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) which is recognized as eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their special status as Indians. ”

“ State, local, and tribal governments, and the private sector will take all reasonable steps necessary to mitigate the costs resulting from the Federal mandate, and will comply with applicable standards of practice and conduct established by recognized professional or trade associations ”

“ During the last twenty years Congress has enacted a series of laws looking to the allotment and distribution of the lands and funds of the Five Civilized Tribes, of which the Cherokee tribe is one, among their respective members, and to the dissolution of the tribal governments. ”

“ History demonstrates that we best serve Native American people when Tribal governments are empowered to lead their communities, and when Federal officials speak with and listen to Tribal leaders in formulating Federal policy that affects Tribal Nations. ”

“ Whereas officials of the Federal Government and private United States citizens harmed Native Peoples by the unlawful acquisition of recognized tribal land and the theft of tribal resources and assets from recognized tribal land;
Whereas the policies of the Federal Government toward Indian tribes and the breaking of covenants with Indian tribes have contributed to the severe social ills and economic troubles in many Native communities today ”

“ Private sector The term “private sector” means all persons or entities in the United States, including individuals, partnerships, associations, corporations, and educational and nonprofit institutions, but shall not include State, local, or tribal governments. ”

“ Intergovernmental mandates If any of the Federal mandates in the bill or joint resolution are Federal intergovernmental mandates, the report required under subsection (a) of this section shall also contain—
(1) (A) a statement of the amount, if any, of increase or decrease in authorization of appropriations under existing Federal financial assistance programs, or of authorization of appropriations for new Federal financial assistance, provided by the bill or joint resolution and usable for activities of State, local, or tribal governments subject to the Federal intergovernmental mandates ”

“ The sooner the idea of considering and treating the various tribes in the Indian Territory as possessing a sort of independent power and nationality is done away with, the earlier will we reach some practical solution of the embarrassments which now surround the question of their government. ”

“ I admit that the five civilized tribes in the Indian Territory, who for years have had schools, courts of justice, a form of government resembling our own, and are enjoying a certain degree of prosperity, might assume the rights and responsibilities of citizenship without serious danger to themselves, although a majority of even these Indians, as I was informed in my conferences with their leading men, still shrink from those responsibilities. ”

“ So long as the great majority of Natives live under the tribal system, many of whose peculiar laws and customs have been embodied in a Code, given the force of law by Parliament, it does not seem that the link between the two people is as strong and effective as it ought to be. If the tribal system is to succeed, it should be given a chance. ”

“ These tribes, contending in a most unequal strife with the forces of modern civilization, more readily falling victims to the vices of white men than accepting their virtues, are entitled to the just consideration and protection of the government, as its wards, from whom, or their ancestors, have been taken their soil and their homes. ”

“ If, then, we may assume that Indian civilization is not altogether impossible, let us inquire what should be the policy of the government towards the Indian tribes when they cease to be dangerous to our frontier population, and to oppose the progress of settlement, either by violence or by menace. ”

“ I should like—and I express the wish of our people—that every Indian tribe should come here and settle on these lands, that this Territory may become filled up with Indians, to the exclusion of others who may be inimical to our race and interests. We believe our right to our soil and our government, which is best suited to our peculiar necessities, would be safer if all our race were united together here. ”

“ Many have for this reason left the tribe, and have been for years endeavoring to obtain a livelihood among the whites, maintaining but little intercourse with those remaining on the reservation, yet still holding their rights in the tribal property. ”

“ As to the severalty policy, those of the Indians who have become convinced of the necessity of adopting the “white man's way” are easily made to comprehend the advantage of each man's having his own piece of land, and a good title to it. The ulterior consequences, as the gradual dissolution of the tribal relations, the disposition to be made of the unused lands for a fair compensation and the opening of the large reservations,—these things will become intelligible and naturally acceptable to them as they go on. ”

“ If it be asked what will be done with these tribes when the country comes to be settled, I would observe, as I have said, that the present policy of the government is to procure their settlement on reservations. This limits them to smaller boundaries; and tends favorably to their civilization. I might also say here, that the title which the Indians have to the country they occupy is that of occupancy. They have the natural right to occupy the land; but the absolute and sovereign title is in the United States. ”

“ A second error has been in assigning to these treaty tribes, as reservations, altogether too extensive regions of territory, — so large, in fact, as to encourage the expectation that they may continue to live by their old methods of the chase, without labor. We have learned that any hopeful policy towards the Indians must look to the breaking up of their tribal relations, and leading each individual and family to a proprietorship of lots or parcels of ground. ”

“ It is our business, therefore, to consider how best the system of tribes and reserves can be maintained, so long as there is in it the stuff of life, and what new elements can be introduced which will make its fall more safe and gradual; and, in the second place, to devise ways and means for dealing with the rapidly increasing loose native population, for replacing the former tribal traditions with some rudiments of civilised law, and for leaving an open door for such development as may be within their capacity. ”

“ Although it is inconceivable that Congress would have intended that the sale of a few lots would divest the Tribe of the power to determine the character of the tribal community, it is equally improbable that Congress envisioned that the Tribe would retain its interest in regulating the use of vast ranges of land sold in fee to nonmembers who lack any voice in setting tribal policy. ”

“ As full citizens, Indians share in the territorial and political sovereignty of the United States. The retained sovereignty of the tribe is but a recognition of certain additional authority the tribes maintain over Indians who consent to be tribal members. Indians like all other citizens share allegiance to the overriding sovereign, the United States. A tribe's additional authority comes from the consent of its members, and so in the criminal sphere membership marks the bounds of tribal authority. ”

“ We have shut ourselves, our citizens, out of large portions of several of our States and Territories, and of vast regions of our wild domain, which we have covenanted to Indian tribes “forever;” to Indian tribes, with an agreement to exclude the whites or to punish trespassers. Many of these reservations are encompassed by free territory and by stages of civilization. But both our Government and our citizens wish to enter, to traverse, and to occupy these cordoned regions; and we fret under our self-exclusion when railroad projects, mines, or emigration tempt us. ”

“ For several years past the government of the United States, as is well known, has been engaged in removing the Indian tribes, resident within the States, to tracts of wild but fertile land, situated beyond the verge of white population. ”

“ That is to say, that these tribes, hastening on as they are doing to the collapse of their tribal organizations, have nothing else to stem the universal undermining that is going on, always with acceleration, than the creeds, moral code, habits, customs, social and political systems of Western Civilization, that is, the equipment of a people differing essentially,—physically, morally, and intellectually. ”

“ These inequalities of existing special laws and treaties should be corrected and some general legislation on the subject should be provided, so that the more progressive members of the different tribes may be settled upon homesteads, and by their example lead others to follow, breaking away from tribal customs and substituting therefor the love of home, the interest of the family, and the rule of the state.
The Indian character and nature are such that they are not easily led while brooding over unadjusted wrongs. ”

“ The removal of the Indian Tribes within our State boundaries, to the west of the Mississippi, and their present condition and probable ultimate fate, have been the topic of such frequent speculation, misunderstanding, and may we not add, misrepresentation, within a few years past, both at home and abroad, that we suppose some notice of them, and particularly of the territory they occupy, and the result, thus far, of their experiment in self-government, drawn from authentic sources, may prove not unacceptable to the public. ”

“ The white man, with his intellectual energy, far-reaching science, and indomitable perseverance, is the peculiar object of my sympathy, and should receive the especial protection and support of government. In this territory there are numerous "Indian reserves," of magnificent extent and choice fertility, capable of sustaining a dense civilized population, now held unimproved by numerous Indian tribes. These tribes are governed by Indian agents, entirely independent of the executive of this territory, and are, indeed, governments within a government. ”

“ Second; whenever it is found that any tribe or band of Indians persistently refuse to go upon a reservation and determine to continue their nomadic habits, accompanied with depredations and outrages upon our frontier settlements, then the policy contemplates the treatment of such tribe or band with all needed severity, to punish them for their outrages according to their merits, thereby teaching them that it is better to follow the advice of the Government, live upon reservations and become civilized, than to continue their native, habits and practices. ”

“ The decrease in numbers of the tribes within the limits of the States and Territories has been most rapid. If they be removed, they can be protected from those associations and evil practices which exert so pernicious and destructive an influence over their destinies. They can be induced to labor and to acquire property, and its acquisition will inspire them with a feeling of independence. Their minds can be cultivated, and they can be taught the value of salutary and uniform laws and be made sensible of the blessings of free government and capable of enjoying its advantages. ”

“ The study I have given to the Indian question in its various aspects, past and present, has produced in my mind the firm conviction that the only certain way to secure the Indians in their possessions and to prevent them from becoming forever a race of homeless paupers and vagabonds, is to transform their tribal title into individual title, inalienable for a certain period ”