Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties: An Indian Declaration of Independence

by Vine Deloria Jr.

Originally published in 1974, just as the Wounded Knee occupation was coming to an end, Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties raises disturbing questions about the status of American Indians within the American and international political landscapes. Analyzing the history of Indian treaty relations with the United States, Vine Deloria presents population and land ownership information to support his argument that many Indian tribes have more impressive landholdings than some small members of the United Nations. Yet American Indians are not even accorded status within the UN's trust territories recognition process. A 2000 study published by the Annual Survey of International and Comparative Law recommends that the United Nations offer membership to the Iroquois, Cherokee, Navajo, and other Indian tribes. Ironically, the study also recommends that smaller tribes band together to form a confederation to seek membership—a suggestion nearly identical to the one the United States made to the Delaware Indians in 1778—and that a presidential commission explore ways to move beyond the Doctrine of Discovery, under which European nations justified their confiscation of Indian lands. Many of these ideas appear here in this book, which predates the 2000 study by twenty-six years. Thus, Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties anticipates recent events as history comes full circle, making the book imperative reading for anyone wishing to understand the background of the movement of American Indians onto the world political stage. In the quarter century since this book was written, Indian nations have taken great strides in demonstrating their claims to recognized nationhood. Together with Tribes, Treaties, and Constitutional Tribulations, by Deloria and David E. Wilkins, Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties highlights the historical events that helped bring these changes to fruition. At the conclusion of Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties, Deloria "The recommendations made in the Twenty Points and the justification for such a change as articulated in the book may well come to pass in our lifetime." Now we are seeing his statement come true.

Genres: History, Native American, Nonfiction, Indigenous, Native Americans, American History, Race

310 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Vine Victor Deloria, Jr. was an American Indian author, theologian, historian, and activist. He was widely known for his book Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto (1969), which helped generate national attention to Native American issues in the same year as the Alcatraz-Red Power Movement. From 1964–1967, he had served as executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, increasing tribal membership from 19 to 156. Beginning in 1977, he was a board member of the National Museum of the American Indian, which now has buildings in both New York City and Washington, DC.

Deloria began his academic career in 1970 at Western Washington State College at Bellingham, Washington. He became Professor of Political Science at the University of Arizona (1978–1990), where he established the first master's degree program in American Indian Studies in the United States. After ten years at the University of Colorado, Boulder, he returned to Arizona and taught at the School of Law.

Reviews

[Rem · Rating 5 out of 5]

"This book...is written to demonstrate that the proposal to reopen the treaty-making procedure is far from a stupid or ill-considered proposal. Rather it is one which would place the United States in the forefront of civilized nations in its treatment of the aboriginal peoples of the continent--a problem which even Japan and the Soviet Union have yet to solve." X (Preface)

"The incident illustrates a fundamental fact of Indian existence: that the President of the United Sates may be a great White Father but he is not "our president--he is theirs." pg. 1

"For the most part, Indians have not accepted the mythology of the American past which interprets American history as a sanitized merging of diverse peoples to form a homogeneous union. The ties to tribal heritage are too strong, the abuses of the past and present too vivid, and the memory of freedom too lasting for many Indians." pg. 2

"After several false starts, the Dawes Act, which incorporated most prominent features of allotment that had been discussed, was passed, in 1887. Under the provisions of the act the President was authorized, whenever the tribes indicated that they were ready, to negotiate with the chiefs and headmen for a division of the tribal lands, and the "surplus," initially sold to the federal government, was to be used for new settlers under the homestead laws...rather than waiting until the tribes petitioned for allotments, the Bureau (BIA) began to threaten the tribes with dire consequences unless they agreed to immediate allotment. " pg. 6

"The Cherokees sued the state of Georgia in the Supreme Court and the court, torn between confirming the sovereignty of Georgia, dodged the issue by ruling that the Cherokees could not sue in an original action in the Supreme Court because they were not a nation in the "foreign" sense demanded by the Constitution...In a historic decision, John Marshall ruled that the laws of Georgia were null and void over the Cherokee lands because of the treaties that the Cherokees had signed with the United States...Jackson refused to order federal troops to defend the Cherokee territory, and sent commissioners south to force treaties from the Cherokees and other tribes that removed them across Mississippi into the then barren lands of Oklahoma." pg. 8

"In 1924...Congress finally relented and passed as simple, one-paragraph statute that acknowledged that Indians would be considered citizens thenceforth without any detrimental effects on their tribal citizenship rights. The Iroquois politely sent a note to the United States informing the government that they were not then, had never been, and did not intend to become American citizens. They would not, they stated, consider that the 1924 statute had any effect with respect to them. They have never wavered from that official position in the years since." pg. 18

"The ideology of civil rights, however, was anathema to the majority of the Indians. In the past they had experienced so many betrayals through policies which purported to give them legal and social "equality" that they suspected anyone who spoke of either equality or helping them to get into "the mainstream." The policy of terminating federal services to Indians, which had dominated the previous decade, was based upon giving Indian civil rights under the theory that, by abolishing treaty rights, Indians would receive full citizenship." pg. 23

"Long after the activists left the island, the government embarked on a selective program of land restoration, returning Blue Lake to Taos Pueblo, Mount Adams to the Yakimas, and some 60,000 acres to the Warm Springs tribes of Oregon, but the restorations were more in the form of political payoffs for support than an acknowledgment of the justice of the case for land reform." pg 38

"There was also a great oral tradition among many tribes concerning the provisions of the the treaties and their meaning. Fathers and grandfathers would pass along almost verbatim the words of the treaties and their meaning...Courts had declared that this oral tradition could not be used by Indians in cases which involved treaties, and that only the writings and minutes taken by the government secretaries and officers would qualify, since they were considered "disinterested parties." That the oral traditions and proceedings of the treaties often coincided with records kept by the whites did not deter the courts from disqualifying the Indians and accepting the testimony of the whites." pg. 52

"Many felt that the other wrongs--loss of lands, loss of traditional tribal government, and police brutality--could be resolved if the treaty question was handled satisfactorily...This demand was bold, dramatic, and probably legally sound." pg. 74

"But, as one of the government people was quick to point out, it was Congress, not the executive branch, which had the final authority to reform the treaty rights of the Indian tribes. Another meeting was promised, and a series of letters containing points for discussion were exchanged...Both sides counted a moral victory. The federal government had been able to contain the protest, and had eventually outlasted the Indians, a fear not unfamiliar to a bureaucracy. The Indians had developed a new pride in themselves which transcended tribal loyalties and instilled in Indian children everywhere the image of the brave Indian warrior, which had been missing in Indian society for two generations." pp. 79-80

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Trail of Broken Treaties (also known as the Trail of Broken Treaties Caravan and the Pan American Native Quest for Justice ) was a cross-country protest that was staged in the autumn of 1972 in the United States by American Indian and First Nations organizations. Edited by Vine Deloria Jr., multiple authors go over legal details and history leading to Wounded Knee and protests such as the occupation of Alcatraz and the Trail of Broken Treaties itself. The multiple authors and the consensus on legal review makdes for some redundant content as the arc from law of discovery (implicit vanquishing) to Congressionally initiated citizenship (as third-class citizens really) is rehashed from only slightly different angles. While I did not find it as engaging as Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto, it is still very educational on the mistreatment of sovereignty initially considered for the aboriginal peoples of America and then steadily eroded and usurped over the centuries.

[Marilyn Sue Michel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is well written and raises many important issues about the history of the First Nations and their legal relationship with the Federal Government, which has many times contradicted itself, mostly to the deprivation of the indigenous tribes. It was published in 1974 and may be outdated. The author died in 2005.

[Cheryl Pollan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a good record of Native Americans' history with the federal government and just how much they were lied to and cheated. The wish for the return to tribes' sovereign status is not as far fetched as it might seem in light of all Deloria's evidence in the tribes' favor.

[Audrey Saltarelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Vine Delores Jr.’s more technical books, but still a good and important read.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Trail of Broken Treaties (also known as the Trail of Broken Treaties Caravan and the Pan American Native Quest for Justice ) was a cross-country protest that was staged in the autumn of 1972 in the United States by American Indian and First Nations organizations. Edited by Vine Deloria Jr., multiple authors go over legal details and history leading to Wounded Knee and protests such as the occupation of Alcatraz and the Trail of Broken Treaties itself. The multiple authors and the consensus on legal review makdes for some redundant content as the arc from law of discovery (implicit vanquishing) to Congressionally initiated citizenship (as third-class citizens really) is rehashed from only slightly different angles. While I did not find it as engaging as Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto, it is still very educational on the mistreatment of sovereignty initially considered for the aboriginal peoples of America and then steadily eroded and usurped over the centuries.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties is an eminently readable introduction to the various legal doctrines marshaled against Indian nations by non-Indian thinkers, legislators, and jurists in the several hundred years since first contact. Deloria wrote the book in the early 1970s, at the height of AIM's popularity with the mainstream press, and he situates his legal analysis within the context of the movement. In that sense the book is also a primary source, capturing the intellectual debates regarding American Indian sovereignty in the early 1970s, as well as proposing potential remedies to the ills Deloria saw.