According to anthropologists, the Hidatsa people resided at Spirit Lake, North Dakota, until circa 1500. A Hidatsa leader had a dream in which he was requested to move west to the Missouri River, where the Hidatsa then established a village near present-day Stanton, North Dakota (Bowers, 1992, p. 22; Milligan, 1972; Document on Hidatsa, n.d.;…

The story, known as "The Theft of Fire," illustrates numerous meanings and teachings crucial to understanding Anishinaabe nationhood. This story contains two discernible points. First, it reveals how the Anishinaabe obtained fire. The second discernible feature within this story is the marking of the hare by his theft of fire. Stories…

In the spring of 2015, the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction brought together tribal Elders from across North Dakota to share stories, memories, songs, and wisdom in order to develop the North Dakota Native American Essential Understandings (NDNAEU) to guide the learning of both Native and non-Native students across the state. They…

This article seeks to explain the nature of the arguments the Iroquois presented to the US government in trying to prevent their removal. In the letters they wrote to the federal government from the 1830s to the 1850s they emphasized their own law as well as that of the United States. They drew on whatever perception of law they deemed was best…

In this article the author provides a case study of how differing geographical imaginations are at the center of state-tribal relations in the United States. Specifically, he focuses on the political conflict between the state of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Ojibwe over the continuing existence and exercise of Ojibwe off-reservation hunting,…

This article examines a brief period of Lake Superior Ojibway history in detail. It describes the territorial dimensions of usufructuary rights and tells how one Ojibway community at Keweenaw Bay, William Jondreau's home, reorganized itself as an Anishnabe state in the 1840s and early 1850s. It also argues that this state-building grew out of…

American Indian treaties and treaty law may seem to fall solely within the purview of legal methodology and critical analysis, yet the 367 American Indian treaties signed with the US federal government beg for the type of dissection and analysis generally associated with cultural and literary critical theory. The tools by which texts are dissected…

This article examines the importance of treaty education for students living in a province entirely ceded through treaty. Specifically, we ask and attempt to answer the questions "Why teach treaties?" and "What is the effect of teaching treaties?" We build on research that explores teachers' use of a treaty resource kit,…

In September 1830 the U.S. government negotiated the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek with some leaders of the Choctaw Nation. The treaty reinforced the congressional Indian Removal Act of 1830, which paved the way for the large-scale physical removal of tens of thousands of tribal people of the southeast, including many of the Choctaw. It provided…

Argues in favor of a Chippewa right to harvest maple sap from trees on federal land. Discusses the history of Indian production of and trade in maple sugar, examines relevant treaties, and draws parallels with tribal rights to fish and harvest wild rice. Contains 91 references. (SV)

Describes the "Ten Cent Treaty" settling the Turtle Mountain Chippewas' 10-million-acre land claim; creation of a small reservation; de facto removal resulting from distant public-domain land allotments; and granting of citizenship and fee patents to half-bloods and subsequent land loss. Contains 30 references. (SV)

Scholars analyzing events in American Indian history have the responsibility to consider not only the White political and social milieu but also American Indian world views, kinship ties, and political and spiritual influences. The Walla Walla Council of 1855, involving U.S. officials and Northwest Plateau tribes, illustrates the importance of…

During treaty negotiations with federal Indian agents in 1851, Taoyateduta (Little Crow), a Dakota representative, warned that the council members would "talk of nothing else" until conflicts related to the previous Treaty of 1837 had been resolved. His statement is surprising, given that government officials at the time, as well as subsequent…

Describes conflicts that arose when the Citizen Band Potawatomis--virtually all of whom were U.S. citizens--were granted reservation land claimed by Absentee Shawnees; government inconsistencies in treating the Citizen Band as citizens or Indians; and the shrewdness of the Band's acculturated leaders in exploiting such inconsistencies. Contains 34…

Traces the efforts of seven landless tribes in western Washington to maintain their tribal identity, establish their treaty rights in court, secure allotments of land, and achieve federal recognition of their tribal status. The absence of trust land holdings among these tribes is the federal government's justification for nonrecognition. (SV)