Federal Indian Law and Relations::

Introduction

In this article, we are going to look at the evolution of United States federal Indian law and its impact on Native American nations past and present. We shall begin by exploring the roots of federal Indian policy in the 'nation-to-nation' treaties signed between America and Indian nations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We will move on to the Marshall opinions in the early to mid-nineteenth century, then we shall explore the years of assimilation and termination policies in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and reach the present-day where federal Indian policy has become increasingly oriented toward tribal self-determination and empowerment. The present-day situation seems rosy on the surface. However, as we shall see soon, the federal-Indian situation, politically and legally, is still shot through with contradictions and problems.