Jodi Rave: Doctrine of Discovery and Indians

"The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 was not the $15 million land deal of the century, despite “99 percent” of teachers and historians saying and writing so, law professor Robert Miller said Monday during a University of Montana lecture.

In reality, the land deal cost the United States another $300 million over the next 15 years because Native Americans retained first rights to the land since they occupied it when the United States allegedly bought it from France.

“The United States signed treaties and fought Indians for the next 15 years,” said Miller, a law professor at Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Ore. The treaties forced tribes into land cessions for which they received cash and annuities, and remain legally binding. Natives still own millions of acres of land within the original Louisiana Purchase, an area stretching from the Gulf Coast to the northern Rocky Mountains.

Miller, author of “Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and Manifest Destiny,” spoke to an audience at the University of Montana Law School, which with the UM Native American Law Students Association is hosting Indian Law Week.

His presentation focused on his book, which breaks new ground about how the Doctrine of Discovery influenced the taking of Native homelands."

Get the Story:
Jodi Rave: Lost history (The Missoulian 4/10)

Relevant Links:
Jodi Rave - http://www.missoulian.com/jodirave

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