Significance: In this case, the Court ruled that it did not have the authority to rule on disputes between states and Indian nations. This decision helped states force American Indians off their lands despite federal treaties protecting Indian territory.
Background: After the American Revolution, white settlers searched for new lands to farm. Much of this land was found through westward migration. However, in some eastern states, American Indian lands were seen as potential farmland. Treaties between the federal government and Indian tribes protected this land from white settlers. In the early 1800s, states attempted to force American Indians off their land. In the late 1820s, Georgia passed acts to gain control of Cherokee land. These acts allowed the state to add Indian territory to its counties, annul Cherokee laws, and survey and distribute land within the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokees asked the Supreme Court for an injunction to stop Georgia from enforcing their new laws.
Decision: This case was argued on March 5, 1831, and decided on March 18, 1831, by a vote of 4 to 2. Justice John Marshall spoke for the Court. Justice Smith Thompson dissented. The majority held that the Supreme Court could not rule on the Cherokee Nation's request because it was a “domestic dependent nation.” In other words, the Cherokee Nation was more of a ward of the state than a sovereign nation like France or England. Because of this difference, Marshall argued that the Cherokee Nation could not be considered a “foreign state.” Thus, the Supreme Court had no authority to hear the case.
Excerpt from the Opinion of the Court: “They [the Cherokee] may, more correctly, perhaps, be denominated domestic dependent nations. . . . Their relation to the United States resembles that of a ward to his guardian. They look to our government for protection; rely upon its kindness and its power; appeal to it for relief to their wants; and address the president as their great father. . . . These considerations go far to support the opinion, that the framers of our constitution had not the Indian tribes in view, when they opened the courts of the union to controversies between a state or the citizens thereof, and foreign states.”
