Part 2 Summary and Analysis

"Laws and Treaties"

This essay begins with commentary on the irony of America's determination to honoring commitments (such as that espoused by President Lyndon Johnson in Vietnam) and its parallel condemnation of countries perceived as not doing so (such as President Richard Nixon's comments on Russia) while breaking every commitment made to Indians (see "Quotes," p. 28). He describes how even the very first treaties, between Indians and the Revolutionary Government, were broken by the government, and how that action resulted in decades-old bitterness. He cites several documented examples of this, including an early decision by the US Supreme Court that set a lasting precedent for government's taking of Indian land.

The author then claims that the principle of self-interest that motivated government's abuse and abandonment of treaties also motivated laws passed by Congress, laws that enabled white encroachment onto reserve lands...