Cindy Amrhein

Author Cindy Amrhein is a local historian and a title abstracter, which gives her an interesting point of view on Native American land rights (Amrhein notes she prefers the term “Indians”, because that’s the language used in historical treaties, but concedes “Native Americans” as politically correct).

Amrhein makes some interesting points; a major one is her contention that the original intent of the United States government was to treat Native American tribes as foreign nations and conclude treaties accordingly. In that regard, she cites two 1790 letters from George Washington to Alexander Hamilton (then Secretary of the Treasury) and to Seneca Chief Cornplanter, complaining that the State of New York and private individuals had conducted negotiations and bought land from the Six Nations, something only the Federal government had the power to do. This didn’t stop the State of New York from continuing to sell “unoccupied” Indian land.

Another interesting point is Amrhein’s argument that a treaty cannot convey land ownership; only a deed can do that. She claims that a treaty can proclaim the intent to convey land, but unless there’s also a deed, no land is transferred.

And there’s a discussion of an interesting personality – Eleazer Williams. Williams had been raised among the Mohawks and apparently considered himself an Indian, but he also seems to have presented himself as having much more influence among the Indians than he actually did – in particular negotiating treaties and signing documents on their behalf. As you might expect, this ended badly for the natives.

Still, the book as a whole is rather disappointing. The book needs an overall history of how US laws relating to Indians changed; instead Amrhein immediately dives into minutiae about land titles and deeds. Her citing of George Washington’s letters is an example; while Washington’s opinions are interesting, it’s the United States Senate, not the President, that makes treaties with foreign powers. She mentions the Indian Nonintercourse Act, but without going into any details. Finally her history basically stops in the 1800s, with little mention of later issues (for example, the Kinzua Dam or New York State’s attempts to collect sales taxes on Indian land). Also missing is a more extensive discussion of native attitudes toward real property.

Certainly worth reading, but I would have liked a longer book with more information. It did inspire me to do more research on my own.… (mer)