American Indian Culture and Research Journal

This article seeks to explain the nature of the arguments the Iroquois presented to the US government in trying to prevent their removal. In the letters they wrote to the federal government from the 1830s to the 1850s they emphasized their own law as well as that of the United States. They drew on whatever perception of law they deemed was best suited to address the problems they were facing. The process by which they composed these letters, the discussions surrounding them, and the compromises they reached over their content can also explain why the Iroquois appealed to several kinds of law.