Indian law is a complicated body of federal and tribal laws.  It impacts life and the activities of Indians and non-Indians on the millions of acres of land within the United States that today make up “Indian country.”  Please click on the links in this blog to American Indians and the United States Constitution and The History of Federal [...]

The phrase Manifest Destiny was apparently first applied to American territorial expansion in 1845.  It was coined by the journalist John L. O’Sullivan.  In July 1845, he wrote an editorial entitled “Annexation” in the United States Magazine and Democratic Review and applied the term to America’s annexation of Texas.  In the editorial, O’Sullivan denounced foreign nations who [...]

Thomas Jefferson demonstrated an understanding and avid use of the Doctrine of Discovery throughout his legal and political careers.  He was the architect of the removal policy of Indian affairs and exercised the government’s Discovery authority over the Indian Nations.  He created the idea of moving all the eastern Indian tribes west of the Mississippi River and [...]

The Doctrine of Discovery From 1492 forward, European countries and the United States justified their dealings with the natives and American Indian tribes in North and South America under the “doctrine of discovery.” Under this principle, the European country that first discovered a new area where Christian Europeans had not yet arrived could claim the [...]

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sunday, May 9, 2004 P-I Focus: Native beneficence Time and time again, American Indians came to the aid of the Corps of Discovery as it pushed westward to the Pacific ROBERT J. MILLER The Lewis and Clark Expedition undertook an exceedingly difficult, dangerous and perhaps even superhuman mission. Most Americans are well aware [...]

Seattle Post-Intelligencer  Wednesday, January 28, 2004 Lewis & Clark helped rob American Indians By ROBERT J. MILLER PROFESSOR Meriwether Lewis and William Clark sit high in the pantheon of American folk heroes. Even today, Lewis and Clark are viewed as brave adventurers who went where no one had gone before, exploring and conquering the wilderness [...]

“There’s a  book by a Native American lawyer just published on the subject [manifest destiny]: Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and Manifest Destiny by Robert J. Miller. It’s one of my Top 50 Lewis and Clark Books picks, available through the Lewis and Clark Road Trips Amazon Associate bookstore. It’s one [...]

Book a compelling read about the settling of West BY CRAIG JACOBSON / For the Lincoln Journal Star   (“Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and Manifest Destiny” by Robert J. Miller, Praeger Publishers, 240 pages, $49.95.)  The telling, and retelling, of the history of Euro-American settlement of the United States has [...]

Professor Miller will be speaking on the subject of his book, Native America, Discovery and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and Manifest Destiny, at the American Philosophical Society on March 2.  The APS is the oldest learned society in the United States.  It was created in 1745 by Benjamin Franklin and others.  Thomas Jefferson was [...]

Native America, Discovered and Conquered Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and Manifest Destiny Robert J. Miller Foreword by Elizabeth Furse Description Manifest Destiny, as a term for westward expansion, was not used until the 1840s. Its predecessor was the Doctrine of Discovery, a legal tradition by which Europeans and Americans laid legal claim to the [...]