NATIVE GEOGRAPHIES Your Name

NATIVE GEOGRAPHIES Your Name: Geography / American Indian Studies 322 / 522 Professor Zoltan Grossman Selected Tribal Nation:

EXERCISE #3: NATIVE LAND LOSS

A. MAPPING THE TRIBAL NATION’S LAND CESSIONS & CLAIMS

(If you have a Canadian First Nation, select any U.S. tribe in the same language family.)

1. Log on Indian Land Cessions in the U.S.: http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/maps/cessions/ Print out the land cessions maps for each state where the tribal nation has treaties, in black and white. Use a colored pencil or yellow marker to shade in the ceded lands of the tribal nation from one treaty or multiple treaties (including treaties co-signed with other tribes).

2. Log on Indian Land Cessions in the United States, 1784-1894 (Library of Congress) http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/llss_browse.html to confirm which states to print out in #1, to read some explanatory text about the cessions, and to “zoom in” to the land cession maps. The text will also help in Section B (below).

3. Log on Indian Land Areas Federally Established (U.S. Indian Claims Commission) http://www.cr.nps.gov/nagpra/DOCUMENTS/ClaimsMapIndex.htm This is map of U.S. Indian lands that “portrays results of cases before the U.S. Indian Claims Commission (ICC) or the U.S. Court of Claims in which an American Indian tribe proved its original tribal occupancy of a tract within the continental United States," in the period of ICC decisions in 1948 to 1978. Please print off the area of the PDF map for your tribal nation’s region of the country, in black and white, and staple it to this exercise. Circle the number of the area(s) pertaining to your tribal nation on the map, and color in the area(s).

What are the number(s) of tribal ownership of the areas pertaining to your tribal nation?

Answer(s) B. READING A TREATY Your tribal nation:

(Proceed straight to B2 if you have the Dene, Cree, Inuit, Innu, Micmac, or Haida.)

(If you have Hopi, Pueblos, Tohono O’odham, Tlingit or Yurok, select any other U.S. tribal nation in the same language family.)

1. If you have a U.S.-based tribal nation, log on Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol. II (Treaties. Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1904). Use either of these two website lists: Treaties alphabetized: http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/Kindex.htm Treaties by year: http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/Toc.htm

Read, print off and attach one of the major treaties signed by your tribal nation.

2. If you have a Canada-based First Nation, log on the treaty maps at Canadian First Nations Treaty Map Index http://www.kstrom.net/isk/maps/cantreat.html and/or Indian Land Claims & Treaties www.globalforestwatch.org/common/canada/map.2.jpg

Then Log on the Historic Treaty Information Site to find a treaty signed by your First Nation http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/pr/trts/hti/site/trindex_e.html

Read, print off and attach one of the major treaties signed by your tribal nation.

The rest of the questions in Section B pertain to both U.S. and Canadian tribes.

3. What year was the treaty with the U.S. or Canada/UK? Where was it signed?

Answer

4. What current states or provinces does the territory ceded in this treaty cover? (The website in A2 may help you answer this). Was it signed by your tribe alone, or together with other tribes (which ones)?

Answers

5. What kind of features did the treaty language use to describe the boundaries of the cession? Did it mainly use natural features or straight lines?

Answer

6. What did your tribal nation receive in return for ceding its land to the U.S. or Canada? (For example, did it receive certain material goods or a reservation?) Be detailed in your paraphrasing, but do not copy the treaty language exactly.

Answer 7. Did the tribal nation(s) reserve or retain any rights in the territory it ceded to the U.S. or Canada? These could include hunting, fishing or gathering rights, and may be mentioned only briefly in the treaty.

Answer

8. Is there anything else interesting that you observe in this treaty? Are there any observations made on the website in A2 that help shed light on the historical context of the treaty? These optional websites might also help further investigate your tribal nation’s treaty history: Laws by tribe: http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol1/HTML_files/INDEX_A.html Tribes alphabetized: http://www.native-languages.org/index.htm#alpha

Answer

C. LOSS OF LAND BASE Your tribal nation:

1. What is the original size of land base of your tribal nation, before Euro-Americans took control of it? You can specify either the size of the territory at First Contact, or the territory ceded in treaties with the U.S. and/or Canada. The figure can be either in acreage or square miles/km. Document sources from the web, books, articles, or tribal governments. Answer

2. How many reservations does your tribal nation have today, including those shared wth other tribes (list in the back of the Atlas of the North American Indian)? Answer

3. What is the present total size of the tribe’s reservation(s), using either the acreage or square miles/km units used in #1. Answer

4. What percentage are the present tribal lands in #2 of the original land base in #1? How much of the national territory has been lost? Answer

5. Besides quantity of territory, was has the tribe lost qualitatively? Can you document that the tribe has lost access to riverways, lakes, rich soils (presently used for agriculture) or natural resources such as trees or fish?

Answer D. RESEARCH INTO LAND ISSUES Your tribal nation:

1. On the web or any readings, find interesting contemporary issues related to your tribal nation’s land base. It could be a treaty rights conflict or land claim court case (especially any related to the treaty in Section C), a reservation jurisdictional issue, a land parcel return or purchase, an environmental issue, or a territorial dispute with a local or state government, reservation non-Indians or neighboring tribes. List 1-3 of these land issues below; they should deal in some way with land or territory rather than simply government powers, economics, cultural disputes, etc. (Do not reuse any sacred site issues you discussed in Exercise 2.)

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2. Pick out one of these issues to unravel in a few long paragraphs. Describe the land issue’s historical origins, how it became a public issue in contemporary times, and its current status. What would be the larger implications of the issue; why would it be important to Native Americans or others outside this specific tribal nation? (In selecting a land issue, think about a geographical aspect that you may want to investigate for your Final Project.)

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3. How would you relate this land issue, or any of the land issues in E1, to the Wilkins readings in Chapter 2 (Indian nations) or Chapter 4 (Federal Indian Policy)? Do you find aspects of the chapters that help explain your tribal nation’s treaty rights, reservation land base, land claims, or on-going land rights issues? Be specific to your tribal nation, and demonstrate that you have read Wilkins.

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