U.S.

Supreme Court
Johnson & Graham's Lessee v. McIntosh (1823)

Facts:

Thomas Johnson purchased land from the Piankeshaw Indians in the Northwest Territory in 1775. His purchase of a large plot in
Illinois was then peacefully handed down to his heirs until the year of 1818 when conflict arose. William McIntosh purchased 11,000 acres of
land within the boundaries of Johnsons land from Congress. Once the conflicting claims on the territory were realized, Johnsons heirs sued
Mcintosh in the Illinois State Court in an effort to regain the land originally appropriated to them. The District Court of Illinois ruled in favor of
McIntosh for the simplistic reason McIntoshs title was valid because it was granted by a higher authority (Congress). Johnsons heirs chose to
appeal to the Supreme Court.

ISSUE:

Whether or not the Indian tribes can give a legally recognizable title in land to private individuals, such that the title may be received
by the private person and upheld against any claims by courts of the United States

Held:

No, the Indian tribes cannot legally give title to private individuals.

The rules of property must be drawn from and decided by the nation in which the property which is the subject matter of the lawsuit
lies. Due to the historical precedents established by the European discovery of North America and the subsequent conquest and division
thereof, the rule was that among the nations of Europe, title properly belonged to the nation which discovered the new land.

US decided that land should be regulated as between themselves--- discoverer and the natives excluding European governments. In
the establishment of these relations, the rights of the original inhabitants were in no instance entirely disregarded, but were necessarily to a
considerable extent impaired. They were admitted to be the rightful occupants of the soil, with a legal as well as just claim to retain possession
of it, and to use it according to their own discretion; but their rights to complete sovereignty as independent nations were necessarily
diminished, and their power to dispose of the soil at their own will to whomsoever they pleased was denied by the original fundamental
principle that discovery gave exclusive title to those who made it.

Title to discovery went to governments, not individuals. The two land parcels in question actually lay in territory claimed by France
but transferred to British jurisdiction by the 1763 Treaty of Paris. Then, title of the two parcels "was forfeited by the laws of war" from Great
Britain to the United States as a result of the Revolution.

The Court held that tribes retained a right to occupy the land and that "title of occupancy" could only be passed from government to
government, tribal to federal. This transfer had not occurred prior to the time of purchase by Johnson and Graham. Therefore, the land title
they purchased only had legal status within tribal law and "cannot be recognized in the courts of the United States." McIntosh was declared the
rightful owner.