Treaty Violations

According to Federal Indian Policy:

1) The United States is not required to uphold treaties made with Indigenous nations (more information). This is traced back to discovery rights.

2) Congress has the power to "abrogate the provisions" of a treaty as they see fit. According to dictionary.com abrogate means "to abolish, do away with, or annul, especially by authority."

3) Congress has actively violated (err, abrogated) the provisions of nearly 400 treaties with Indigenous Nations (more information). As recently as July 2004 Congress passed a bill that extinguished Indigenous title to 24 million acres of Shoshone land in Nevada (more information).

4) Compensation paid by the United States government for confiscated Indigenous lands can be priced at 19th century market values amounting to only pennies on the acre (more information).

5) Treaty violations often include denial of hunting and fishing rights, the confiscation of territory and the removal of people from their traditional lands.

According to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples:

1) In all cases of treaty/agreement/constructive arrangement relationships, the interpretation of the indigenous party of the provisions of those instruments should be accorded equal value with non-indigenous interpretation of the same provisions(E/CN.4/Sub.2/1999/20. Para. 318-319).

2) The Special Rapporteur...recommends the fullest possible implementation in good faith of the provisions of treaties/agreements between indigenous peoples and States, where they exist, from the perspective of seeking both justice and reconciliation. (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1999/20. Para. 318-319).

3) The Special Rapporteur...call[s] on governments to take urgent action, including action to guarantee indigenous groups free and equal access to the administration of justice. The Special Rapporteur recommends that Governments should take the determined steps needed to combat the discrimination against indigenous people which is often deeply rooted in the operation of State administrative bodies, and put in place effective measures to end impunity for all discrimination against the indigenous population (A/59/258 para. 67-68).

The issues of land, territory and access to natural resources remain central to observing the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people. They have crucial implications for the indigenous communities’ enjoyment of civil and political and economic, social and cultural rights everywhere in the world. The Special Rapporteur wishes to appeal to any governments which have difficulties in these fields to examine how they can cooperate with native peoples to find negotiated and lasting solutions to the ongoing conflicts connected with them (A/59/258 para. 67-68).

According to International Human Rights Bodies:

1) In 2001, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination noted to the United States "the persistence of the discriminatory effects of the legacy of...destructive policies with regard to Native Americans." The Committee specifically voiced concern over: 1) Congress' unilateral power to abrogate treaties entered into with Indian nations; 2) that the land Indigenous Peoples use or possess can be taken without compensation; and 3) that there are many plans for expanding mining and nuclear waste storage on Indigenous ancestral lands (source).

2) On December 27, 2002 in a case between Shoshone elders and the United States, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights concluded that the United States has failed to ensure Indigenous Shoshone grandmothers, Mary and Carrie Dann, their property rights to ancestral Western Shoshone lands and their right to equality before the law (source).