Native American treaties
Indigenous nation compacts
Native American treaties are formal agreements between the United States government and Indigenous nations, typically involving land cessions, territorial boundaries, and rights to resources.
Most were negotiated in the 18th and 19th centuries, often under coercion or with terms later violated by the government.
Treaty rights—to hunting, fishing, or sovereignty—remain legally significant and frequently contested: The tribe invoked treaty rights to the fishing grounds.
- hunting rightsAuthorization to take game
- buffalo huntingPursuing large plains mammals
- self-determinationControl over one's fate
- federal governmentCentralized national ruling body
- sovereigntySupreme independent authority
water rights · displacement · tribal governance · land claims · sacred sites · ratification · intergenerational trauma · indigenous rights · federalism · forced relocation · legal disputes · jurisdiction · negotiation · constitutional law · activism · smoke signals · traditional practices · peace pipe
Native American treatieshandshake deals
Informal contracts without paperwork
gentleman's agreements · oral traditions · executive orders · presidential directives · customary practices
Native American treatiesland seizure
Forcible taking of territory
Trail of Tears · ethnic cleansing · manifest destiny · expropriation
Native American treatiesassimilation policy
Enforced cultural absorption mandate
forced assimilation · conquest · Manifest Destiny · settler colonialism · executive orders
native, natives, natively, nativity, nation, nations, national, nationally, nationality