 Treaty with the Navajo Nation (1868) |
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The 1868 Treaty with the Navajo allowed them to return to their ancestral lands during a period of history where the U.S. government were removing Native Americans from their homelands.
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| U.S. Constitutionalism and Native American Sovereignty |
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This teaching module discusses the centrality of Native people and their nations throughout American history, featuring a webinar with Ned Blackhawk, author of the 2023 book, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History.
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| United States v. Kagama (1886) |
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This Supreme Court case asserted the federal government's role in criminal jurisdiction on tribal lands. The Court ruled that the Indian Major Crimes act was constitutional, therefore federal courts had jurisdiction to indict Native defendants for murder.
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| United States v. Yellow Sun (1870) |
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In this case, a federal court in Nebraska debated the question of federal or state jurisdiction over Native Americans suspected of a crime committed outside a reservation. The court held that there were no treaty rights or congressional provisions that required federal jurisdiction, therefore states had jurisdiction over crimes committed within its boundaries unless on tribal land. They also held that because crimes committed on tribal lands were not in violation of any federal laws, the state had civil and criminal jurisdiction over tribal lands.
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| Webinar - The Worst Trickster Story Ever Told: Native America, the Supreme Court, and the U.S. Constitution (2025) |
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In this webinar, Professor Keith Richotte, Jr., of the University of Arizona discusses the Supreme Court's understanding of Native America from an Indigenous perspective with Dr. Katrina Jagodinsky and her Rights & Wrongs in American Legal History class.
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| Webinar - U.S. Constitutionalism and Native American Sovereignty (2023) |
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In this webinar, Professor Ned Blackhawk of Yale University discusses his recent book The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History, which argues for the centrality of Native people and their nations throughout American history from the colonial era to the present, as well as tribal sovereignty and federal Indian law in the United States.
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| Worcester v. Georgia (1832) |
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In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee people had sovereign powers as a nation. The case arose after a Protestant missionary was convicted of residing among the Cherokee Nation in Gwinnett County, Georgia, without a license from the state. The Supreme Court vacated Worcester's conviction, stating that individual states did not have authority over Native American affairs
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