American Indian Culture and Research Journal

One can best characterize the relations between Native Americans and the United States federal government as complex and violent. As the United States expanded across the continent, the federal government was forced to come up with a policy to deal with these people occupying the West. Important questions concerning land ownership, tribal autonomy, and citizenship arose during the nineteenth century and the United States sought to deal with these questions through special Indian legislation. In time, legislation and court decisions created a semi-consistent Indian policy. In general, this policy assumed that Indians were not citizens of the United States, yet owned their lands, and that the federal government had some responsibility to "protect" their land. As a price for this protection, many Indians were forced to give up control of their land and some internal tribal sovereignty. Throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, a group of New Mexico Indians, the Pueblos, enjoyed a peculiar status that provided exemption from federal protection and control. This status came to an end, however, in 1913 due to a United States Supreme Court decision, and the change created considerable uncertainty in New Mexico regarding land ownership and tribal autonomy. A reaction followed in the 1920s when non-Indians and the Pueblos made new attempts to adjust to the problems which resulted. Tracing the origins of these Indians' special status, describing the problems that arose when their special status no longer existed, and analyzing the reactions and eventual solution are the subjects of this inquiry.