Editing Indian Territory (section)

===Relocation and treaties===
{{Main|Indian Removal| American Indian Wars|Treaty of St. Louis (disambiguation){{!}}Treaty of St. Louis}}
Before the 1871 [[Indian Appropriations Act]], much of what was called Indian Territory was a large area in the central part of the United States whose boundaries were set by treaties between the US Government and various indigenous tribes.  After 1871, the Federal Government dealt with Indian Tribes through statute; the 1871 Indian Appropriations Act also stated that "hereafter no Indian nation or tribe within the territory of the United States shall be acknowledged or recognized as an independent nation, tribe, or power with whom the United States may contract by treaty: Provided, further, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to invalidate or impair the obligation of any treaty heretofore lawfully made and ratified with any such Indian nation or tribe".<ref>{{cite web|title=Subchapter I – Treaties |url=http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/25C3.txt|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317074540/http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/25C3.txt|archive-date=March 17, 2012|access-date=27 February 2011|work=25 USC Chapter 3 – Agreements with Indians |publisher=uscode – house.gov}}</ref><ref name="25 usc 71">25 U.S.C. § 71. Indian Appropriation Act of March 3, 1871, 16 Stat. 544, 566</ref><ref>Congress' plenary authority to "override treaty provisions and legislate for the protection of the Native Americans." United States v. City of McAlester, 604 F.2d 42, 47 (10th Cir. 1979)</ref><ref>United States v. Blackfeet Tribe of Blackfeet Indian Reservation, 364 F.Supp. 192, 194 (D.Mont. 1973) ("[A]n Indian tribe is sovereign to the extent that the United States permits it to be sovereign – neither more nor less.")</ref>

The Indian Appropriations Act also made it a federal crime to commit murder, manslaughter, rape, assault with intent to kill, arson, burglary, or larceny within any Territory of the United States. The Supreme Court affirmed the action in 1886 in ''[[United States v. Kagama]]'', which affirmed that the U.S. government has [[plenary power]] over Native American tribes within its borders using the rationalization that "The power of the general government over these remnants of a race once powerful&nbsp;... is necessary to their protection as well as to the safety of those among whom they dwell".<ref>{{cite web | url=http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=118&invol=375 | title=United States v. Kagama, 118 U.S. 375 (1886), Filed May 10, 1886| access-date=2012-04-29}}</ref> While the federal government of the United States had previously recognized the Indian Tribes as semi-independent, "it has the right and authority, instead of controlling them by treaties, to govern them by acts of Congress, they being within the geographical limit of the United States&nbsp;... The Indians [Native Americans] owe no allegiance to a State within which their reservation may be established, and the State gives them no protection."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/118/375/
| title=United States v. Kagama – 118 U.S. 375 (1886)  | access-date=2012-04-29}}</ref>