Indians=Savages

United States Federal Indian law and policy is completely rooted in the savagery and inferiority of Indigenous Peoples. The following excerpts are just a few examples from the U.S. Supreme Court:

...the character and religion of its inhabitants afforded an apology for considering them as a people over whom the superior genius of Europe might claim an ascendency (Johnson v. McIntosh, 1823).

...the tribes of Indians inhabiting this country were fierce savages, whose occupation was war, and whose subsistence was drawn chiefly from the forest. To leave them in possession of their country, was to leave the country a wilderness; to govern them as a distinct people, was impossible, because they were as brave and as high spirited as they were fierce, and were ready to repel by arms every attempt on their independence(Johnson v. McIntosh, 1823).

It is to be presumed that in this matter the United States would be governed by such considerations of justice as would control a Christian people in their treatment of an ignorant and dependent race. Be that as it may, the propriety or justice of their action towards the Indians with respect to their lands is a question of governmental policy, and is not a matter open to discussion in a controversy between third parties, neither of whom derives title from the Indians. (Beecher v.Wetherby 1877).

Congress undoubtedly expected that at no distant day the State would be settled by white people, and the semi-barbarous condition of the Indian tribes would give place to the higher civilization of our race....Accordingly, soon after the admission of the State into the Union, means were taken for the extinguishment of the Indian title (Beecher v.Wetherby 1877).

It is not surprising that so long ago racist notions were used to support injustice towards Indigenous Peoples and the right to disregard native land holdings (after all, in that time slavery was alive and well in this country). What is surprising is that today, the United States government continues to excercise this power over Indigenous Peoples and nations. When challenged, the arguments made by the above U.S. Supreme Court decisions and other similar cases, are used in order to justify the government's continued right to disregard Indigenous People's land rights. In other words, the U.S. government continues to justify its actions towards Indigenous Peoples on arguments based on their savagery and inferiority. A lawyer of federal indian law referred to these as Indian Jim Crow laws that need to be weeded out of federal policies.

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