pp1 - RC - Essay 3
In its 1903 decision in the case of Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, the United States
Supreme Court rejected the efforts of three Native American tribes to prevent
the opening of tribal lands to non-Indian settlement without tribal consent.
In his study of the Lone Wolf case, Blue Clark properly emphasizes the Court's
assertion of a virtually unlimited unilateral power of Congress (the House of
Representatives and the Senate) over Native American affairs. But he fails to
note the decision's more far-reaching impact: shortly after Lone Wolf, the
federal government totally abandoned negotiation and execution of formal
written agreements with Indian tribes as a prerequisite for the implementation
of federal Indian policy. Many commentators believe that this change had
already occurred in 1871 when