Do you want to learn more about treaties?

Consult Books

Gary Clayton Anderson. Kinsmen of Another Kind, 1984.
Historian Anderson’s book examines Dakota history from the fur trade era through the 1860s, the time of the Sioux Conflict. He links two centuries of friendly interaction between Dakotas and non-Indians to the Dakota concept of kinship, which initially was embraced by traders. Settlers who entered the region in the 1850s rejected these ideas about interpersonal relations, and the result was armed conflict in 1862-63. Anderson describes the efforts of Dakota leaders, such as Wabasha and Little Crow, to establish good relations with Americans.

Gary Clayton Anderson. Little Crow, 1986.
This is a skillfully written biography of Little Crow that situates him in his community and culture and explores his leadership role within the context of American Indian policy in the 19th century.

Bert Anson. The Miami Indians, 1970.
This history covers the period from about 1700 to 1968 and includes discussion of the Miamis in Indiana and in Oklahoma. Anson also provides details about the Indian Claims Commission case filed by the Miami Tribe.

David R. M. Beck. Siege and Survival, 2002.
Historian Beck provides a detailed history of the Menominee people from 1634 to 1856. Included is a discussion of their treaties and their leadership tradition, including the career of Oshkosh.

David R. M. Beck. The Struggle for Self-Determination, 2005.
Beck provides a detailed history of the Menominee Tribe from the mid-19th century to the present. He discusses their treaties, leadership tradition (including the career of Oshkosh), and court cases. There is a detailed history of the Menominee’s successful struggle for the restoration of the tribe’s federally recognized status after they were terminated in 1961.

James A. Clifton. The “Pokagons,” 1683-1983, 1984.
Anthropologist Clifton provides a concise history of the Michigan Potawatomi, including the history of their case before the Court of Claims and their leadership tradition.

James A. Clifton. The Prairie People, 1977.
A history of the Potawatomi, including the groups who relocated west of the Mississippi.

Vine Deloria Jr. and David E. Wilkins. Tribes, Treaties, and Constitutional Tribulations, 2000.
The authors discuss how all sections of the Constitution apply to individual Indians and tribes. The book is most useful to readers with a political science background.

Mark Diedrich. The Chiefs Wapahasha: Three Generations of Dakota Leadership, 1740-1876, 2004. See also Ojibway Chiefs, 1999 and Ho-Chunk Chiefs, 2001.
Diedrich provides brief biographies of Indian leaders.

Mark Diedrich. Ojibway Oratory, 1990.
This work contains brief biographies of Ojibwa leaders. See also Diedrich’s Dakota Oratory for biographical information on Dakota leaders.

R. David Edmunds. The Potawatomis, 1978.
A good history of the tribe and its leaders up to the removal era.

William T. Hagan. The Sac and Fox Indians, 1958.
This history covers the tribes from just before the 1804 treaty to the time of their emigration to Iowa, then Kansas, then Oklahoma. Historian Hagan also discusses the return of groups of Sac and Fox to Iowa (Tama).

Taiawagi Helton and Lindsay G. Robertson. “The Foundations of Federal Indian Law and Its Application in the Twentieth Century,” in Beyond Red Power, eds. Daniel M. Cobb and Loretta Fowler, 2007.
This article, written by two attorneys, is an overview of federal law relating to Indians. The authors explain how federal law and policy reflect American attitudes toward Indians and how these policies have been inconsistent over time. They argue that while post-1978 Supreme Court decisions have undermined tribal sovereignty, Congress has moved to restore recognition of inherent tribal sovereignty in certain areas.

Reginald Horsman. Expansion and American Indian Policy, 1783-1812, 1967.
Historian Horsman argues that the U. S. attempted to construct an Indian policy that combined a desire for expansion with a desire for national honor through fair treatment of Indians. He makes the point that American policy during 1783-1812 foreshadowed policy in the 19th century as Americans attempted to give expansion into Indian country, Mexico, Hawaii, and the Philippines a moral basis. There are two concise, clearly written chapters on the Old Northwest (the Midwest), detailing how U. S. expansion overrode “fair treatment.” After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, President Thomas Jefferson determined to obtain land farther west despite guarantees to Indians at the Treaty of Greenville.

Rebecca Kugel. To Be the Main Leaders of Our People: A History of Minnesota Ojibwe Politics, 1825-1898, 1998.
This is a study of Ojibwa leadership strategies in the 19th century from 1825 to 1900. Historian Kugel examines how leaders working for political independence and economic autonomy dealt with Americans and how they tried to help the Ojibwas adapt to their changing world. Kugel also explores internal political rivalries among Ojibwas, especially between the civil and “war” leaders.

James M. McClurken. Gah-Baeh-Jhagwah-Buk: The Way It Happened, 1992.
An excellent, concise history of the Little Traverse Bay bands of Ottawa (Odawa). There is discussion of treaties, leaders, and court claims.

Roy W. Meyer. History of the Santee Sioux, 1993.
Meyer gives a detailed account of Minnesota Dakota during the fur trade and treaty eras, as well as the Sioux Conflict and its aftermath. He discusses the recent history of the Dakota in Minnesota, and the refugee communities in Nebraska, North and South Dakota. Meyer provides a good description of the Prairie du Chien, Traverse des Sioux, and Mendota treaty councils, as well as biographical information on Wabasha and Little Crow.

Larry Nesper. “Treaty Rights,” in A Companion to the Anthropology of American Indians, ed. Thomas Biolsi, 2004.
Anthropologist Nesper discusses the contemporary significance of treaties and treaty rights. He explains the link between treaty claims and Native cultural renaissance.

Larry Nesper. The Walleye War, 2002.
Nesper explores the process by which Ojibwa leaders mobilized community support for the fishing rights struggle and shows how this effort became part of a major cultural renaissance among Ojibwas.

James W. Oberly. A Nation of Statesmen, 2005.
Historian Oberly covers 19th and 20th century history of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans, including their treaties and legal claims.

Nicholas C. Peroff. Menominee Drums, 1982.
Peroff discusses Menominee termination, its effects on the Menominees, and their successful struggle for the restoration of the trust relationship. The history of Menominee cases in the Court of Claims and the Supreme Court also is included.

Stewart Rafert. The Miami Indians of Indiana, 1996.
This is a well written history of the Miami in Indiana up to about 1994. The author includes a discussion of the Miami’s efforts to obtain federal recognition.

Ronald N. Satz. Chippewa Treaty Rights. Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, Transactions 79, 1, 1991.
This is an excellent history of the treaties signed by Ojibwas in Wisconsin, the curtailment of treaty rights, and the court cases that dealt with the struggle for the affirmation of those rights. The book includes the 1837, 1842, and 1854 treaties and treaty proceedings.

John Sugden. Blue Jacket, 2000.
This is a good history of the Ohio Shawnee and their leaders, with a focus on Blue Jacket, who fought with Tecumseh. The account ends with the death of Blue Jacket in 1808.

Imre Sutton, ed. Irredeemable America, 1985.
This volume has essays on Indian land claims: including, Harvey D. Rosenthal on the Indian Claims Commission and Nancy Oestreich Lurie on the work of expert witnesses.

Helen Hornbeck Tanner. “In the Arena: An Expert Witness View of the Indian Claims Commission,” in Beyond Red Power, eds. Daniel M. Cobb and Loretta Fowler, 2007.
Historian Tanner discusses her experiences working on several claims, pointing out how Western concepts of land ownership and the adversarial system of the courts worked against a fair resolution of these cases.

Stephen Warren. The Shawnees and Their Neighbors, 1795-1870, 2008.
A good history of the Shawnee in Ohio and after removal. The author provides information about the life of Black Hoof.

David E. Wilkins. American Indian Politics and the American Political System, 2002.
Political scientist Wilkins gives an overview of federal policy regarding Indian tribes and explains the “policy ambivalence” between the supervisory powers Congress exercises over tribes and the inherent sovereignty of tribes. He includes chapters on Indian activism.

David E. Wilkins. American Indian Sovereignty and the United States Supreme Court, 1997.
Political scientist Wilkins provides an analysis of 15 Supreme Court cases in terms of their effect on Indian sovereignty. He assesses the Court’s record of acknowledging tribal sovereignty, upholding treaty rights, and construing the distinctive nature of Indian rights. At times the Court affirmed indigenous rights and at other times disavowed them. Wilkins’s focus is on the latter cases.

Charles F. Wilkinson. American Indians, Time, and the Law, 1987.
This is a clearly written discussion of American law as it has applied to Indian tribes from the establishment of the United States to the present. The author explains how the Constitution and Supreme Court recognize tribes as permanent governments within the federal constitutional system and argues that on balance the Supreme Court has honored treaty rights.

Winnebago Indians. American Indian Ethnohistory series, 1974.
This work by J. A. Jones, Alice E. Smith, and Vernon Carstensen provides a summary of Ho-Chunk history up to the early 19th century. Their treaties are discussed.

View Videos

Dakota Conflict (Twin Cities Public Television and Minnesota Video Vault, 1990)
This 60 minute video explores the causes, events, and aftermath of the conflict between the Dakota Indians and the American government and settlers.
www.mnvideovault.org/search_results.php?q=the+dakota+conflict

Lighting the Seventh Fire (Upstream Productions, 1995)
Native American filmmaker Sandra Osawa shows how the Chippewa [Ojibwa] Indians of Northern Wisconsin have struggled to restore the centuries old tradition of spearfishing and examines the heated opposition they have encountered. See www.pbs.org/pov/pov1995/lightingthe7thfire

Ojibwe Journeys: Treaties, Sandy Lake & The Waabanong Run (Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission)
This book and companion DVD explores important events in the history of the Ojibwa people in the Great Lake Superior region. These resources provide an explanation of treaty rights fundamentals and provide a historical context, from the treaty negotiations in the mid-1800s to the 1999 Waabanong Run.
One can order the video from the following website:
http://www.glifwc.org/publications/Materials.pdf

Use Online Sources

Constitution of the United States
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html
On the National Archives website, you can read a full transcript of the Constitution and the Constitutional Amendments. Several of the original pages of the Constitution have been digitized and can be viewed on this site.

Indian Claims Commission decisions
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/icc/index.html
Established in 1946 and disbanded in 1978, the Indians Claims Commission was a judicial panel that heard claims of Native American tribes against the United States. The Oklahoma State University Library digitized all 43 volumes of the Indian Claims Commission Decisions (published 1973 and supplemented in 1976 and 2004). The Oklahoma State University Library’s online collection includes the text of each case in chronological order.

Indian Country Wisconsin
http://www.mpm.edu/wirp
A project of the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Indian Country Wisconsin website is intended to assist teachers in the instruction of culture and history of Wisconsin Indian tribes. The following link leads to a page that provides an historical context for Indian treaty rights in Wisconsin: http://www.mpm.edu/wirp/ICW-09.html

Indian Law Resource Center
http://www.indianlaw.org/
The Indian Law Resource Center is a non-profit advocacy organization that provides legal assistance to American Indian and Alaska Native nations. The website offers information on contemporary issues, links to relevant articles and essays published in newspapers and magazines, and an online version of Indigenous Notes, a newsletter.

International Indian Treaty Council
http://www.treatycouncil.org/
Since 1974, the International Indian Treaty Council has advocated for the rights and recognition of indigenous peoples worldwide. The IITC also sponsors an annual Treaty Conference held at a different site each year, bringing diverse groups of indigenous people together to discuss contemporary issues. The IITC website offers information on recent treaty cases as well as a newsletter and reports from the annual Treaty Conference.

The Kappler Project: Charles J. Kappler’s Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties (compiled 1903-71) online:
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/
The Oklahoma State University Library digitized all seven volumes of Charles J. Kappler’s compilation of treaties, laws, and executive orders relating to Native American tribes. Volume II includes treaties produced from 1770 to 1890. The text of these treaties is reproduced in full online, and the site is searchable by tribe and by year: http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/Toc.htm.

MPR News
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/07/17/mctsettlement/
Here, a 2008 article discusses the effort by the six bands of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribes to decide how to split a twenty million dollar settlement from the federal government. The settlement was awarded after the Tribe successfully sued the federal government in the late 1990s over fraud and mismanagement relating to the Nelson Act of 1889. This act, which provided for the sale of reservation timberland, as well as the assignment of allotments, led to massive fraud when the value of the timber was undervalued.

Native American Rights Fund (NARF)
http://www.narf.org/
The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) is a non-profit law firm dedicated to ensuring that state and federal governments live up to their legal obligations. The NARF website includes information on recent cases, an archive of past cases, and a number of publications, including the NARF newsletter, that report on contemporary legal issues relating to Native Americans. NARF also houses the National Indian Law Library (NILL), a public collection of documents relating to Native Americans. Many of these documents in this library’s collection can be accessed on the website: http://www.narf.org/nill/

Turtle Talk
http://turtletalk.wordpress.com/
Turtle Talk is a blog for the Indigenous Law and Policy Center at the Michigan State University College of Law. Updated frequently, Turtle Talk posts news items related to Indian law and politics, especially on topics relating to tribes in the Great Lakes region. Additionally, Turtle Talk provides links to every Supreme Court case involving federal Indian law from 1959 to the present. If you click on “ILPC Research Areas” on the upper menu, you will find links to the Supreme Court cases as well as other primary documents important to Michigan Indian legal and political history.

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