The role of congressional control in the adjudication of Indian claims in the United States Court of Claims

Abstract

Indian Claims in the United States Court of Claims possess the unique quality of close congressional scrutiny. Because of the long-standing legislative relationship existing between the legislative branch and Indian tribal groups, the experiences of tribes in the Court of Claims held particular dynamics which were exclusively distinctive in many ways. It is my hypothesis that congressional plenary power over Indian tribes and the influential legislative control which Congress exercised over the Court of Claims combined to put Indians in a litigatory environment which doomed the possibility for the majority of tribes to achieve successful redress of grievances.