To Extend Fair and Impartial Justice to the Indian: Native Americans and the Additional Court of Michigan Territory, 1823-1836

The history of Indian-white relations in the United States is generally a tragic one. Whites sought to dispossess Native peoples and establish political hegemony by imposing Anglo-American concepts of land tenure, culture, and law upon them One of the principal institutions that Americans used to accomplish these goals was the court system Given the eventual dispossession of Indians in the United States, one might expect the historical record to confirm that Native Americans were the victims of a ruthless, efficient judicial system. However, legal documents often reveal something quite different. In the last ten to fifteen years, there has been a dramatic shift in Native American legal studies. Previously, works by scholars such as Felix S. Cohen tended to concentrate heavily upon federal law and Indian treaties.2 These