The land-grant system's tripartite mission of teaching, research, and Extension was intended to improve the American livelihood while making contributions to the advancement of U.S. agriculture and economic development. To date, historical analyses within the field of agricultural education have focused on special interest topics rather than a…

The economic and environmental significance of school land policy in the United States has yet to be imagined, let alone systematically studied, by scholars. Although the fact that Congress allocated shares of public lands to the support of schools beginning in the 1780s is well known, historians have not adequately assessed the impacts of that…

The fragmentation of large nineteenth-century reservations resulted in the creation of American Indian allotment geographies in the United States. Federal Indian policy, namely the General Allotment Act of 1887, allowed the US government to break up large reservations, allot land to individual Indians, and sell the surplus to non-Indian settlers.…

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…

This report from the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources recommends the passage of Senate bill S. 917, as amended by the committee, to provide for the conveyance of certain lands adjacent to the Gund Ranch, Grass Valley, Nevada to the University of Nevada. Information provided includes: a summary of the provisions and committee…

Establishing that the Seminoles have present, treaty-guaranteed rights to the lands where they live and other Florida lands, this article details the Seminole claims prosecuted in the Indian Claims Commission, maintaining it was unauthorized by the traditional Seminole, unlawful, and in some respects fraudulent. (JC)

Three judical decisions (Johnson vs McIntosh, Cherokee Nation vs State of Georgia, and Worcester vs Georgia) are cited as "the root and vine of the field of jurisprudence" re: decisions imposed upon the American Indian and rendered during the first half of the 19th century when the U.S. was experiencing a national crisis. (JC)

The purpose of this paper is to examine United States law to determine whether it is possible for American Indian peoples and governments to effectively assert and vindicate their rights as distinct peoples and as nations (the doctrines of political question, plenary power, Tee-Hit-Ton, and sovereign immunity are addressed). (JC)

Maintaining that a Federal policy re: unresolved American Indian claims is a necessary element for an overall Federal policy toward Indian affairs, this statement by the Assistant Chief of the Indian Claims Section/Land and Natural Resources Division argues against enactment of: H.R. 2664 (a bill "to amend the Indian Claims Commission Act of…

Presenting an historical account of the Prairie Potawatomie's resistance to the General Allotment Act of 1887, this article emphasizes the Prairie Band's resiliance and underlying strength. (JC)

Presenting arguments for consideration by the United Nations Decolonization Committee, this article: illustrates that under generally accepted definitions of colonialism Indian nations remain colonies today; discusses twentieth century changes in laws of territorial acquisition, agression, and self-determination; and asserts that Indian nations…

Describing events and legislation leading up to the removal of the Cherokee Nation from its eastern homelands to Oklahoma, this article details the Federal Government's role in what is termed the "cultural genocide" of the Cherokee Nation. (JC)

Potential products of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act are: pressures for cash that will give rise to "the sharking industries"; competition among the once cooperatively oriented Alaska Natives; a loss of Native land through the inability to pay taxes; the acculturation/assimilation of the Alaska Native. (JC)