Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock: Treaty Rights and Indian Law at the End of the Nineteenth Century

Landmark court cases in the history of formal U.S. relations with Indian tribes are Corn Tassel, Standing Bear, Crow Dog, and Lone Wolf. Each exemplifies a problem or a process as the United States defined and codified its politics toward Indians. The importance of the Lone Wolf case of 1903 resides in its enunciation of the "plenary power" doctrine—that the United States could unilaterally act in violation of its own treaties and that Congress could dispose of land recog…