CHEROKEE NATION V. GEORGIA

By refusing to consider Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831), the Supreme Court denied self-government to a Native American tribe. Prior to 1831, the federal government treated tribes as foreign entities in conducting official interactions with them. In an effort to keep their tribal lands, the Cherokee living within Georgia turned to farming and ranching. They also wrote a constitution and laws reflecting some aspects of U.S. law. The state of Georgia declared all the Cherokee laws void, prompting that nation to appeal to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Marshall wrote the opinion dismissing the case, saying that Indian tribes were "domestic dependent nations" and could not turn to the Supreme Court. The case's dismissal allowed Georgia to strip the tribe of its governmental forms.

A year later, however, in Worcester v. Georgia (1832), Marshall wrote that the "laws of Georgia can have no force" in Cherokee territory. He then established the doctrine that the national government alone could conduct Native American affairs. President Andrew Jackson and John Marshall locked horns on the issue. After Worcester, Jackson remarked, "John Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it." Georgia instead enforced its laws on the Cherokee tribe.

See also Indians.