Cherokee Nation v Georgia, 30 U.S. (5 Peters) 1 (1831) Facts:

“Certain laws” of Georgia sought to divest the Cherokee Nation of its lands in that State and imposed onerous restrictions on individual Cherokee Indians.  In response, the Cherokee Nation petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States for an injunction against these laws under Article III, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution which gives the Court original authority in cases where a State is a party.

Issues:

Does the Court have original authority to hear a motion brought against a State by a Tribe?  In Chief Justice John Marshall’s words, “Do Cherokees constitute a foreign state in the sense of the constitution?”

Holding:

No, the Court does not have authority to hear a case between the Cherokee and the State of Georgia.

Reasoning:

Chief Justice Marshall in his majority opinion reasoned that “an Indian Tribe . . . is not a foreign state . . . and cannot maintain an action in the Courts of the United States,” and “doubted whether those Tribes . . . can . . . more correctly, perhaps, be denominated domestic dependent nations [because]. . . Their relation to the United States resembles that of a ward of his guardian.”

Historical Significance:

The impact of the Supreme Court’s decision in Cherokee Nation v Georgia was of historic proportion.  Georgia quickly enforced its new laws against the Cherokee people and by 1837 President Martin Van Buren had forcibly relocated thousands of Cherokees into temporary prison camps.  The following year the U.S. military marched over 15,000 Cherokee men, women, and children out of the southeast and into Oklahoma Territory in the horrific incident known as The Trail of Tears when, along the way, many died of disease and exposure.  Chief Justice Marshall noted that the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution distinctly differentiated between foreign nations, states, and the various Indian Tribes.  To Marshall the relationship was “unlike that of any other two people in existence.”  He used this language to frame Indian peoples in the eyes of the law as in a “state of pupilage,” left only to the “kindness and power” of the federal government for redress or relief. 

Cherokee Nation v Georgia stripped Indian Nations of their power to maintain authority over their own lands, and declassified them as foreign entities, denying them access to U.S. Courts to redress wrongs.  As a result, an era of assimilation, removal, and allotment dawned on Native American peoples that would continue well into the 20th century.  With citizenship granted to Indians in 1924, the lingering effects of Cherokee Nation v Georgia include issues surrounding taxation, tribal sovereignty, and the preservation of cultural heritage.