American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Indian Country denotes a policy of legal and geographical separatism in the evolution of Indian white relations in the United States. Since the earliest establishment of lines separating the tribes from the settlers, Indian nations from colonies, territories, and states, Indian Country has also connoted the limited sovereignty that tribes hold over members and lands. In time, as policies changed-e.g., treaty negotiations ended, tribal property was individualized (allotted), reservations were opened up and thus diminished-the distinctive nature of separatism became blurred, and lines of demarcation yielded to continuous intrusion in fact and in law. Indian tribes today are neither states nor foreign nations, yet are not fully part of the constitutionally derived federal system. They do not represent a third entity in a tripartite governmental structure. To this extent, their "measured separatism," to use a phrase coined by law professor Charles Wilkinson, still flourishes within Indian Country, although it is increasingly difficult to delimit the bounds of Indian affairs in the hinterland of this nation. This symposium is an initial exploration whose premise is that considerably more study of geography than heretofore has been revealed in the literature may well unravel the convoluted nature of Indian Country today. My initial article displays many differing interpretations and definitions of Indian Country and focuses on the interface of law and geography in an effort to bridge the differences in approach, thus helping the reader to comprehend the four case studies to follow.