U.S. Indigenous Peoples=Wards of the United States

Again, this concept comes from the U.S. Supreme Court. In Cherokee Nation v. the State of Georgia (1831), the Supreme Court delivered the following opinion:

The condition of the Indians in relation to the United States is perhaps unlike that of any other two people in existence...

...they are in a state of pupilage. Their relation to the United States resembles that of a ward to his guardian.

They look to our government for protection; rely upon its kindness and its power; appeal to it for relief to their wants; and address the president as their great father...

The only other groups of individuals that represent wards in the United States are prisoners, mentally disabled persons and orphaned children. All of these other groups, however, are able to change their status under U.S. law (i.e. prisoners are released from prison, orphans cease to be wards at age 18). Indigenous Peoples cannot.

www.indigenousrightswatch.org