Racial Assumptions.

Several important Supreme Court decisions centered on the status of Native Americans in the United States. Two types of conflicts were particularly significant. The first involved Native Americans' relationship to the land. Whites claiming to have purchased land from Indians found themselves in conflict with whites claiming to have been granted the same land by a state government. In litigation to determine the title, the fundamental question was whether Native Americans owned the land on which they lived, since ownership of land included the right to convey it. A second important controversy involved the autonomy of Native Americans who lived within the boundaries of a state. Could the state government assert jurisdiction over these people? Were Indian tribes in effect independent nations that governed themselves? Supreme Court decisions on these issues reflected racial stereotypes about Native Americans, whom whites...