Opinion ID: 513936
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Source of National Power to Make Peace Treaties with the Indians

Text: 30 A fundamental issue that divides the parties is whether federal power to make peace treaties with the Indians derives from Article IX(1) or Article IX(4). The dispute is important because the plaintiffs, relying on clause 1, contend that the national power to make peace treaties with the Indians included the power to extinguish Indian title, whereas the defendants, relying on clause 4, contend that the national power to make treaties with the Indians in the course of managing all affairs with them was subject to the Legislative Rights Proviso in that clause, a proviso the defendants contend confirmed state authority to extinguish Indian title to lands within state borders. As a fallback position, the defendants also contend that, even if Indian peace treaty power derives from clause 1, that power is nonetheless modified by the Legislative Rights Proviso of clause 4. 31 The District Court resolved this dispute in favor of the plaintiffs but with a qualification that results, in effect, in a victory for the defendants. Judge McCurn first concluded that the plain language of clause 1 indicates that congress had clause 1 authority over Indians. 649 F.Supp. at 434. He then stated that Congress' power to make treaties with the Indians was exclusive only with respect to treaties of war and peace, id. at 435; with respect to treaties to purchase land, he concluded that the states had such power under clause 4 by virtue of the Legislative Rights Proviso and that this Proviso included the right to purchase Indian land and extinguish Indian title without consent of the Confederal Congress, id. at 434. 32 Though we reach the same ultimate conclusion, we travel a different analytical route. We do not agree with Judge McCurn that clause 1 conveyed to the Confederal Congress exclusive power to make only certain kinds of treaties with the Indians. The plain language of clause 1 indicates to us that whatever power was there contained was indivisible. We see no basis for reading clause 1 to give Congress exclusive power to make some treaties with the Indians, leaving the states with power to make other treaties with them. As we read clause 1, it has no application to Indians. Instead, we read clause 4, with its grant of national power to manage all affairs with the Indians, to grant the Confederal Congress the power to make any treaties with the Indians--on war and peace and on other subjects such as land acquisitions. The clause 4 power, however, was subject to the Legislative Rights Proviso, and we read this Proviso to reflect the same distinction Judge McCurn read into clause 1. The Proviso was not a grant to the states of an indivisible array of powers. We conclude that it did not give the states any power to make treaties of war and peace with the Indians (such power belonging exclusively to Congress under clause 4), but that it did give the states the power to purchase Indian land within their borders and extinguish Indian title to such land so long as such activity did not interfere with Congress's paramount powers over war and peace with the Indians. 33 Our reasons for reaching these conclusions start with the text of the pertinent provisions. Clause 1 grouped Congress's exclusive power to make treaties with its exclusive power to send and receive ambassadors. The grant of such exclusive powers was complemented by the denial to the states in Article VI(1) of the power, without consent of Congress, to make any treaty or to exchange embassies with any king, prince or state. In none of the contemporaneous materials were the Indian nations or their leaders referred to as a king, prince or state. This phrase plainly applied to foreign nations. It was to these nations, not Indian nations, that the United States sent ambassadors, and it was with these nations that the United States could make treaties under clause 1. The Supreme Court has referred to the Indian tribes as domestic dependent nations in concluding that they are not foreign states within the meaning of section 2 of Article II of the Constitution. See Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 5 Pet. (30 U.S.) 1, 17, 8 L.Ed. 25 (1831). 34 A further consideration, based on both the text of the Articles and contemporanous practice, concerns ratification. Article IX(6) prohibited the United States from entering into any treaties or alliances ... unless nine States assent to the same. During the confederal period, treaties between the United States and Indian nations were not submitted to the states for ratification. In particular, the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, which plaintiffs rely on in this litigation as an exercise of Congress' authority under Article IX(1), became effective when it was signed. Congress did not submit it for ratification but merely directed that the Treaty be published and transmitted to the states. 28 Journals of the Continental Congress 423-26, 430 (June 6, 1785) [hereinafter cited as JCC]. Treaties authorized by clause 1 of Article IX were those that required ratification as provided in clause 6. By not submitting Indian treaties for ratification, the negotiators and the Confederal Congress to which they reported indicated their contemporaneous understanding that such treaties were authorized by clause 4 as part of managing all affairs with the Indians, rather than by clause 1. 5 35 A further textual consideration arises from the fact that although Article IX(1) included treaties of commerce, Article IX(4) expressly covered trade with the Indians, further indicating that the powers of Article IX(1) were those relating to foreign countries, not domestic Indian nations. 36 Plaintiffs contend that in one respect the text of the Articles supports their reading of Article IX(1). They rely on the provision of Article VI(5), which exempted the states from the prohibition against engaging in war without the consent of Congress when there is imminent danger of invasion by some nation of Indians. Since an exception for threat of invasion by Indians was contained in the article generally restricting the states' powers concerning war and peace and since this exception was expressly referred to in Article IX(1), plaintiffs argue that matters concerning war and peace with the Indians must have fallen within Article IX(1)'s grant of exclusive authority to Congress over war and peace. Though the argument found favor with the District Court, 649 F.Supp. at 434-35, we are not persuaded. Article VI(5) simply recognized that threat of invasion by Indians justified an exception to what would otherwise have been exclusive power in Congress over matters of war and peace, but it sheds no light on whether such power, with respect to Indians, was conferred by clause 1 or clause 4 of Article IX. The reference to the exception in Article IX(1) lends some support to an inference that clause 1 was the source of authority for Indian treaties, but this arguable inference is insufficient to overcome the contrary textual considerations. 37 Contemporaneous understanding of the legislators who had framed the Articles of Confederation further supports our conclusion. On several occasions, committees of the Confederal Congress filing reports concerning their investigations of Indian affairs on matters of war and peace explicitly referred to Article IX(4) as the source of their authority and made no mention of Article IX(1). See, e.g., 33 JCC 454, 458 (Aug. 3, 1787); 25 JCC 680-93 (Oct. 15, 1783). The report filed on October 15, 1783, by the committee investigating Indian affairs in the Southern Department explicitly referred to the authority of Congress to make peace treaties with the Indians and relied upon Article IX(4). Especially pertinent is the April 21, 1783, resolution of a committee of Congress reporting on steps to end hostilities with the Indians and to prepare for peace treaties. Reciting the source of congressional authority, the resolution relied on the Article IX(4) power of managing all affairs with the Indians and made no mention of Article IX(1). 24 JCC 264 (Apr. 21, 1783). In this regard it is also notable that the Proclamation of 1783, a broad exercise of national authority over Indian affairs, which we consider below, expressly referred to the language of Article IX(4) as the source of authority for the Proclamation, and made no mention of Article IX(1). Proclamation of 1783, reprinted in 25 JCC 602 (Sept. 22, 1783). 38 We do not doubt that treaties made during the confederal period between the United States and Indian nations are entitled to the same respect as treaties made with foreign nations and that both equally became the supreme Law of the Land by virtue of Article VI of the Constitution. See Worcester v. Georgia, supra, 6 Pet. at 559. We conclude only that Congress's power to make Indian treaties derived from Article IX(4). 39