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![handle is hein.amindian/indwarp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: [No. 6o-Second Series-3000]
INDIAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION,
1305 ARCH STREET,
PHILADELPHIA, PA., October, 1901.
INDIAN WARDSHIP.
BY CHARLES E. PANCOAST.
The relationship between the Indian tribes and the United
States has come to be defined by the term Wardship.
In 1831 Chief Justice Marshall, after declining to'describe
the Indian tribes as foreign nations, said they may more cor-
rectly perhaps be denominated domestic dependent nations.
They are in a state of pupilage. Their relation
to the United States resembles that of a ward to his guardian.
(Cherokee Nations v. Georgia, 5 Pet. I.) But in 1871 the
United States ceased to make treaties with them, as with nations,
and thereafter substituted the word contract. (Rev. Stat. 2072,
act March 3, 1871.) And finally in 1885 Mr. Justice Miller
declares: These Indian tribes are the wards of the nation.
. . . From their very weakness and helplessness, so
largely due to the course of dealing of the Federal government
with them and treaties in which it has been promised, there
arises the duty of protecting, and with it the power. (U. S.
v. Kagama, I18 U. S. 375.)
Notwithstanding the Land in Severalty Act, approved July
8, 1887, under which Indians may take up allotments and
become citizens of the United States, and the Secretary of the
Interior may allot to those failing to apply, many Indians,
probably the majority, still continue their tribal relations, with
community of property, and are still under this wardship
benefitting by the faithfulness or suffering from the unfaithful-
ness of their guardian; and this condition seems likely to con-
I
Reproduction by Permission of Buffalo & Erie County Public Library Buffalo, NY](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.amindian/indwarp0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)