Articles
Explore every article on the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie — its purpose, history, legal significance, and ongoing relevance.
The Crow (Apsáalooke) Nation
The Apsáalooke, widely known as the Crow, are a Plains nation whose homeland lies in the region of present-day Montana and the surrounding area.…
The Cheyenne and Arapaho of the Plains
Among the nations closely associated with the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie are the Cheyenne and the Arapaho. Longtime allies who often lived and…
Understanding the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota
The Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota are related peoples who together form one of the most prominent groups of nations on the Northern Plains. Understanding…
The Great Sioux Nation and the Seven Council Fires
The peoples often referred to collectively as the Sioux are more accurately understood through their own name for themselves: the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, meaning the…
The Nation-to-Nation Relationship and Treaty Rights Today
The relationship between Native nations and the United States is often described as nation-to-nation. This phrase captures a fundamental truth: Native nations are governments,…
The Self-Determination Era and Modern Tribal Governments
After a long period of policies aimed at assimilation and the erosion of tribal authority, the second half of the twentieth century brought a…
The Marshall Trilogy and the Foundations of Federal Indian Law
The legal foundations of the relationship between Native nations and the United States rest heavily on three early Supreme Court decisions issued in the…
What Tribal Sovereignty Means
Tribal sovereignty is one of the most important and often misunderstood concepts in the relationship between Native nations and the United States. At its…
A Century of Land Loss on the Northern Plains
The century that followed the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie saw a dramatic reduction in the lands held by Native nations on the Northern…
The Indian Claims Commission
In 1946, the United States created a special body to address the many long-standing grievances that Native nations held against the federal government: the…
The Dawes Act and Allotment on the Plains
Among the policies that most drastically reshaped Native land ownership was the General Allotment Act of 1887, commonly known as the Dawes Act. Its…
United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians (1980)
In 1980, the United States Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in a case that reached back more than a century: United States v.…