Indian Country - Related and Historical Meanings

Related and Historical Meanings

Historically, Indian country was considered the areas, regions, or territories beyond the frontier of settlement that were inhabited primarily by Native Americans. The first grants of land in what is now the United States made by the King of England left it to the grantee to make such arrangements as they were able with the Indians living on the granted land. As the original Thirteen Colonies grew and treaties were made, the de facto boundary between settled territory and Indian country during the 18th century was roughly the crest of the Appalachian Mountains, a boundary set into law by the Royal Proclamation of 1763, the Confederation Congress Proclamation of 1783, and later by the Nonintercourse Act. These areas were defined generally by boundaries set by treaties (or sometimes simply by political circumstances). It was understood that the law of the United States and the laws of individual states were unenforceable in Indian country (for all practical purposes), and tribes that lived on those lands had full sovereignty in those areas.

Read more about this topic:  Indian Country

Famous quotes containing the words related, historical and/or meanings:

    The question of place and climate is most closely related to the question of nutrition. Nobody is free to live everywhere; and whoever has to solve great problems that challenge all his strength actually has a very restricted choice in this matter. The influence of climate on our metabolism, its retardation, its acceleration, goes so far that a mistaken choice of place and climate can not only estrange a man from his task but can actually keep it from him: he never gets to see it.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    What are your historical Facts; still more your biographical? Wilt thou know a Man ... by stringing-together beadrolls of what thou namest Facts?
    Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)

    The first green night of their dreaming, asleep beneath the Tree,/God said, “Let meanings move,” and there was poetry.
    Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)