Johnson v. M'Intosh

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Johnson v. M'Intosh

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued February 15 – 19, 1823
Decided February 28, 1823


Full case name:	Thomas Johnson and Graham's Lessee v. William M'Intosh

Citations:	21 U.S. 543; 21 U.S. (8 Wheat.) 543; 5 L. Ed. 681; 1823 U.S. LEXIS 293

Prior history:	Appeal from the District Court of Illinois

Subsequent history:	None

Holding

Native Americans had the right of occupancy but not ultimate title to their lands, and so could not sell land to private U.S. citizens.

Court membership

Chief Justice: John Marshall
Associate Justices: Bushrod Washington, William Johnson, Henry Brockholst Livingston, Thomas Todd, Gabriel Duvall, Joseph Story

Case opinions

Majority by: Marshall
Joined by: unanimous

Laws applied

Ius gentium

Johnson v. M'Intosh, 21 U.S. (8 Wheat.) 543 (1823)^[1], was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that private citizens could not purchase lands directly from Native Americans. The Court determined that the United States government had acquired ultimate title to the land based on the longstanding practices of European colonization, and therefore Native Americans could sell their land only to the U.S. government.

1 Facts
2 Question presented
3 Opinion of the Court
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Facts

Thomas Johnson bought land from Piankeshaw Indian tribes in 1773 and 1775. The defendant, William M'Intosh (pronounced "McIntosh"), subsequently obtained a land patent to this same land by the United States government. The plaintiffs, lessees of the son and grandson of Thomas Johnson who had inherited the land in the interim, brought an action for ejectment against Mr. M'Intosh in the Illinois District Court, claiming that it was theirs by virtue of their grandfather's purchases in 1773 and 1775. Plaintiffs contended that their title ran directly from the Native Americans who owned the property and therefore it was superior to defendants’ title. Defendant M’Intosh, on the other hand, maintained that the land belonged to him by virtue of the United States’ land patent. The district court held that defendant M’Intosh’s claim was superior on the grounds that the Piankeshaw were not able to actually convey the land because they never “owned” it in the traditional sense of the word. The Plaintiffs requested review of the decision which granted title to the property in that state to defendant M’Intosh on the basis of the land grant from the United States.

[edit] Question presented

The Supreme Court was called upon to consider whether Native Americans had the power to give or sell land that had been "discovered" by European powers.

[edit] Opinion of the Court

The Supreme Court upheld the finding for M'Intosh, ruling that individuals could not buy land directly from Native Americans, since the United States government had acquired ultimate title to Native American lands.

In a long and philosophical opinion, the Court outlined the history of European land acquisition in North America, laying the groundwork for its rationale behind creation of the "Discovery Doctrine". The Discovery Doctrine consisted of two key elements: First, European nations assumed free title to lands they "discovered"; Native Americans on those lands, according to this doctrine, retained the right of occupancy (like tenants in an apartment building), but had never really been considered "owners" of the land. ("Discovery is the foundation of title, in European nations, and this overlooks all proprietary rights in the natives.") Second, the doctrine established a restriction on alienability of the tribes' occupancy rights, which meant that tribes could sell their limited rights of occupancy only to the discovering sovereign.

The Court frankly acknowledged that this longstanding European and U.S. practice treated Native Americans "as an inferior race of people, without the privileges of citizens, and under the perpetual protection and pupilage of the government." This ruling later supported decisions of the Court upholding lesser rights afforded to residents of U.S. territories in the Insular Cases.

[edit] References

Jean Edward Smith, John Marshall: Definer Of A Nation, New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1996.

Lindsay G. Robertson, Conquest by Law: How the Discovery of America Dispossessed Indigenous Peoples of Their Lands, Oxford University Press, USA, 2005.