Indian Claims Insight

 

Department of the Interior employees are offered access to this database at their desktops; employees who are teleworking may access it through the Department's VPN. Others must contact a Reference Librarian for assistance.

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Indian Claims Insight is a one-of-a-kind research tool that provides researchers with the opportunity to understand and analyze Native American migration and resettlement throughout U.S. history, as well as federal government Indian removal policies and subsequent actions to address Native American claims.                                             

Indian Claims Insight allows researchers to search Indian claims content by keyword, full text, docket number, and more ways. Content includes decisions, transcripts, docket books, journals of the Indian Claims Commission, a judicial panel for relations between the U.S. Government and Native American tribes; and related statutes and congressional publications.

Unique compiled docket histories provide legal researchers with the ability to quickly search the full text of all content related to each Indian claim, which can be narrowed on the fly to pinpoint a topic. The compilation includes not only court documents, but also cites treaties, related congressional publications, and maps to allow researchers to fully understand the specifics of each case, without leaving the docket history page. The inclusion of histories for both Court of Claims and Indian Claims Commissions dockets allows researchers to easily grasp the changes in the Indian claims process throughout U.S. history up to the present time.

Compiled histories for Indian Nation and Tribes allow researchers interested in the history of a specific Indian Nation to view all related treaties, maps, and court documents, or drill down quickly to see content related to a specific geographic location, time, or federally recognized tribe. The compiled page makes it easy for users to trace the journeys of the Indians as U.S. government Indian removal policies pushed them from their ancestral lands and forced them to relocate, as well as the determination of the tribes to gain standing in court to bring action against the U.S. Government to seek redress for inequities in the treaty process.

Indian Claims Insight's geographic indexing allows users to narrow their search to records related to specific States and Territories, which allows users to understand the location of Indian Nations and tribes at various times, and to understand how westward expansion of white settlers forced Indians from different cultures to coexist in increasingly narrowed spaces.

Indian Claims Insight will provide Indian claims researchers with content and workflow solution tools that will allow users to research the history of U.S. Indian claims from 1789 to the present.

Content includes:

  • Pre-1948:  claims presented to Congress and/or brought before the Court of Claims
  • 1948-1978:  Indian Claims Commission, including briefs, docket books, decisions, expert testimony, oral transcripts
  • Post-1978:  Claims brought before the US Court of Claims (through 1982) and US Court of Federal Claims (through 2006); documents related to post-2006 settlement of claims; legislative histories and congressional publications directly related to Indian claims, including congressional publications indexed by docket numbers; important Supreme Court decisions; and maps.

 

 

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