Property and the State

Question 1

Johnson v. MacIntosh

Answer 1

Action for ejectment for lands in the State of Illinois, in which plaintiff claims superior title (given by NA) under purchase and conveyance from the certain Indian nations over defendant under a later grant from the United States.

Rule:Discovery of land gives the exclusive right to settle, possess, and govern the new land, and the absolute title to the soil, subject to certain rights of occupancy only in the natives.

Question 2

Cherokee Nation. v. Georgia

Answer 2

Arguments:
I. William Wirt focused on establishing the court’s jurisdiction. He explained that Congress recognized the Cherokee Nation as a state in the commerce clause of the third article of the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress the power to “regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes.” Wirt argued that the Court had jurisdiction over the case because the government had previously recognized the Cherokee Nation as a foreign state in treaties.

II. Attorneys on behalf of Georgia argued that the state had a right to the land-based on its 1802 agreement with the federal government. Additionally, the Cherokee Nation could not be considered a state because it was not a sovereign nation with a constitution and a distinct governing system.

Question 3

The Dawes Act

Answer 3

Abolished the reservation system. Providing for the distribution of Indian reservation land among individual Native Americans, with the aim of creating responsible farmers in the white man’s image.

Question 4

Brendale v. Confederated Tribes and Bands of Yakima

Answer 4

Yakima ceded vast areas of land to the government but kept an area for its exclusive benefit and use. Land in question is zoned as restricted by the Yakima and zoned forest watershed by Yakima County. Supreme Court refers to the Indian General Allotment Act of 1887. SC determined that because the tribe doesn’t have any authority itself, by way of tribal ordinance or actions in the tribal courts, it cannot regulate the use of fee land.

Question 5

Adverse Possession

Answer 5

A person who is not the legal owner of property, and who in fact may have entered as a trespasser, who uses the property for enough years becomes the owner of the property and defeats all rights of the true, record, or rightful owner, even if the latter had legal or record title

Question 6

Elements of adverse possession

Answer 6

1. Open and Notorious
2. Cotinuous
3. Exclusive
4. Actual
5. Hostile or adverse