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Cited by 99Indigenous Cultures and HistoryAmerican Constitutional Law and PoliticsIndigenous Peoples' Rights and Law

U.S. Treaty Making with American Indians: Institutional Change and Relative Power, 1784–1911

Spirling, Arthur·2012·American Journal of Political Science
DOI 10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00558.x
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Abstract

Native Americans are unique among domestic actors in that their relations with the U.S. government involve treaty making, with almost 600 such documents signed between the Revolutionary War and the turn of the twentieth century. We investigate the effect of constitutional changes to the treating process in 1871, by which Congress stripped the president of his ability to negotiate directly with tribes. We construct a comprehensive new data set by digitizing all of the treaties for systematic textual analysis. Employing scaling techniques validated with word‐use information, we show that a single dimension characterizes the treaties as more or less “harsh” in land and resource cession terms. We find that specific institutional changes to treaty‐making mechanisms had little effect on agreement outcomes. Rather, it is the relative bargaining power of the United States economically and militarily that contributes to worsening terms for Indians over the nineteenth century.

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Authors
Spirling, A.
Affiliations
Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
Spirling, Arthur
ORCID
Spirling, Arthur
Venue
American Journal of Political Science
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2011-12-14
Volume
56
Issue
1
Pages
84-97
ISSN
  • 0092-5853 (ISSN-L)
  • 1540-5907
DOI
10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00558.x
OpenAlex
W2111878847
Cited by
98
References
73
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 3
FWCI
18.08
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
American Journal of Political Science (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Indigenous Cultures and History
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › American Constitutional Law and Politics
  • Social Sciences › Law › Indigenous Peoples' Rights and Law
Keywords
treaty-making, Native Americans, institutional change, relative power, bargaining power, territorial cession, 19th century

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