Not to make too much out of this, however, while reading this I
became concerned that there is a perception, as articulated below,
that our American Indian treaty rights were some how granted to "us"
by the United States. This is not only historically incorrect, but also
legally incorrect. Since the Native Nations predate the United States,
and under the U.S. Constitution were held to be outside the
jurisdiction of the United States, it is difficult to hold the position that
the U.S. could grant rights to another sovereign (that being our Native
Nations). The purpose of the Treaties was to grant from the Native
Nations to the United States the rights to specific tracts of land,
peace, etc. The language of the treaty relates to duties that the U.S.
must provide to the Native Nations, but that is as "payment or rent"
for the grant of land given by the Native Nation, not as a granting of
rights by the U.S. to another sovereign within their own territory. As
long as the U.S. upholds its "rent" then the grant by the Native Nation
stays intact. This is fundamentally how a treaty or internaitonal
agreement works. This is an important position to understand as it
relates to Native sovereignty and tends to change the focus from the
idea that Treaty "rights" are something that the U.S. can take away,
into (what I believe) is the more appropriate view, that the rights of a
sovereign cannot be limited by the actions of an outside government
unilaterally. While this initial posting on non-violence didn't serve to
discuss treaty functions, I hope that people understand why I felt that
this was important to comment on. Thank you, Richard Rose
> Over time this witness diffused the hatred and dispelled the
> problem. The Indians now peacefully enjoy their treaty rights
> granted them in the U.S.Constitution.
>
> Ian Harris University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
> Department of Educational Policy & Community Studies
> Enderis 529 (414) 229-4724
> P.O. Box 413, Mil. WI 53201
> imh@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Richard A. Rose
Executive Dean
College of Arts and Sciences
University at Albany
State University of New York
Albany, NY 12222
(518) 442-4647