Steven Newcomb (Shawnee/Lenape) Prior to the invasion of this continent (“North America”) by representatives of the monarchs of Western Christendom, the original nations and peoples of the continent, such as the Apache, were living their own free and independent way of life. We can think back on the thousands of years during which no Christian
READ MOREWhat “#LandBack” Leaves Out of Focus “A return to an earlier or normal condition” is one definition of the word “back.” In relation to land and Native nations or peoples, the word “back” is often expressed as, “they should give the land back to the Indians.” “#LandBack” has now become a popular meme among some
READ MORESixty-six years ago, in November of 1954, the U.S. Justice Department submitted a bizarre argument to the Supreme Court in the case Tee-Hit-Ton Indians v. United States. The United States argued that the Tee-Hit-Ton Band of Tlingit Indians in Alaska should not receive monetary compensation for a taking of timber from their Tlingit territory. Why?
READ MOREPrior to the first voyage of Columbus in 1492, the original nations of the two continents that are now called North and South America (the “Western Hemisphere”) were living completely free and independent. The vast Atlantic Ocean separated those distinct and free nations from Western Christendom (Western Europe). Today, we, as the descendants of our
READ MOREIn his splendid book The Lawless Law of Nations (1925), Sterling E. Edmunds says that governments may be defined as “groups of men possessing arbitrary power over other men.” (p. 426) If Edmunds is right, the idea of “self-government” is not a remedy of much merit for American Indians, for such a system would
READ MOREOne of the most significant sections of the Johnson v. McIntosh ruling of 1823, is Chief Justice John Marshall’s assertion that the Indians’ rights to complete sovereignty as independent nations” had been ended by “Christian people” (original emphasis) becoming knowledgeable of the location of lands inhabited by Native people “who were heathens” (Marshall’s phrase). Marshall
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