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Page Number: 90

8 

HAALAND v. BRACKEEN 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

again and again, frontier settlers encroached on Indian ter-
ritory and committed acts that violated those treaties.  Id., 
at  46–48;  F.  Cohen,  Handbook  of  Federal  Indian  Law 
§1.02[3],  pp. 21–22  (2012)  (Cohen).   Such  violations  were 
taken  seriously;  as  offenses  against  “the  laws  of  nations,” 
they  provoked  the  Indians  and  provided  “just  causes  of
war.”  The Federalist No. 3, at 44 (J. Jay); see also 2 E. de 
Vattel, The Law of Nations §§71–76, pp. 161–163 (J. Chitty 
ed. 1876).

Yet the Confederation Congress was almost powerless to 
stop these abuses.  After a committee noted confusion about 
the  extent  of  congressional  power  over  Indian  affairs  in 
1787, Congress had to ask the States for their cooperation
in curbing the abuses that their own citizens were perpe-
trating.  Prucha 48–49.  The weakness of Congress meant,
however,  that  “federal  attempts  to  check  state  intrusions 
were often ignored.”  Cohen §1.02[3], at 22.  The result was 
that,  by  the  time  of  the  Constitutional  Convention,  “the
young nation [stood on] the brink of Indian warfare on sev-
eral fronts.”  Ibid.  Such a war, feared some Founders, could 
be destructive to the fledgling Republic.  See G. Ablavsky, 
The Savage Constitution, 63 Duke L. J. 999, 1033 (2014). 

The  Constitution  addressed  those  problems  in  several 
ways.  First  and  most  plainly,  the  Constitution  made  all
federal treaties and laws “the supreme Law of the Land,”
notwithstanding the laws of any State.  Art. VI.  It empow-
ered Congress not only to “declare War,” but also to “raise
and support Armies,” “provide and maintain a Navy,” and 
“provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of
the Union.”  Art. I, §8.  It enabled Congress to “define and 
punish . . . Offences against the Law of Nations.”  Ibid.  And 
it granted Congress the authority to “make all Laws which
shall be necessary and proper” for carrying out any of those 
powers.  Ibid. 

The Constitution also provided one power specific to In-
dian tribes: the power “[t]o regulate Commerce . . . with the