The Treaty of Fort Stanwix, which ended hostilities in the region in 1768, pushed the border of Miami territory further west and resulted in the usurpation of thousands of acres of Indian land to European squatters. As compensation, the British promised to protect the remaining Miami lands from encroachment. The Miami accepted this treaty as their final concession to the British, and based all their subsequent diplomacy and warfare on its terms.

In 1784, the newly-formed U.S. government attempted to renegotiate the Fort Stanwix Treaty with many of the Indian nations in the old Northwest. The Miami, fearing the loss of more lands, refused to consider revision of the agreement. Later, in 1792, the United States tried to argue that its victory in the Revolution had negated the Treaty of Fort Stanwix and gave it control over Miami lands. The Miami chiefs responded succinctly that the American claim to Miami lands, based on a transfer from the British King, was "an affair which concerns you and him, and not us. We have never parted with such a power." The United States then grudgingly acknowledged Miami sovereignty and agreed to uphold the Fort Stanwix Treaty. It failed to do so, however, and Americans flooded into Miami land, paying some compensation according to terms of the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, Ohio.

Under the unrelenting pressures of invasion, the Miami, their relatives (the Piankashaw, Kaskaskia, Wea, Eel River, Kickapoo, Delaware, and Shawnee Nations) and other nations in the region (including the Wyandot, Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi) were subsequently compelled to negotiate a succession of treaties with the U.S. government over lands which were ceded piece by piece until they became the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Kentucky. The United States violated all of those treaties, however (although they still exist today as binding documents of international law). Consequently, faced with the same impossible situation experienced by the Abenaki in Vermont, many Miamis adopted a strategy of "blending in" with the surrounding settler population.

In contrast to the Abenaki, the Miami peoples were clearly recognized as a nation by the United States. In 1841, however, their resistance was diminished due to the continuing usurpation of their lands, and finally the Miami government reluctantly agreed to move the majority of the population to "Indian Territory" (which later became the state of Oklahoma, when it, too, was taken by the United States from the many different Indian nations forced to move there, as well as from thoselike the Osage, Pawnee and Comanchewhich were indigenous to those lands).

Although a small number of Miami remained in Indiana, the federal government recognized only the relocated Oklahoma Miami as the "real Miami." The United States considered the Indiana Miami "absent members" who deserved recognition as individual Indians but without a collective juridical identity in their own right. This dual policy led to a long-standing dispute, which remains unresolved today, between the Oklahoma and Indiana Miami over which fraction of the original nation was and is legitimate.

In 1854, the federal government pronounced the Indiana Miami part of the official "tribe" and authorized a "council" to represent them. In 1871, however, Miami land in Indiana was allotted and the U.S. government declared the Miami people to be U.S. citizens. Then, in 1897, an administrative order of the Interior Department proclaimed that all Miami who did not go to Oklahoma at that time were no longer to be considered part of the "tribe."

By the 20th century, then, both the Abenaki and the Miami found themselves in similar straits with respect to the U.S. government. Neither group had the federal recognition necessary to be eligible to receive Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) funds. Because their sovereignty as indigenous nations had not been recognized, they retained little if any control over their traditional lands and resources. Both the Abenaki and the Miami resisted being so disempowered, however, and have continued to do so consistently over the years.

In recent years, both nations have claimed their sovereignty in several ways. They have declared the right to hunt and fish in their traditional homelands without state licenses, sought to regain control over at least part of their traditional lands, run "self-help" programs for education and job training, and exercised their authority as sovereign juridical entities. With respect to this last issue, both nations have undertaken the arduous process of attempting to achieve official governmental recognitionthe Abenaki with both the state of Vermont and the federal government, and the Miami with the federal government alone. An examination of this struggle reveals major disagreements between Euro-American and indigenous interpretations of the impact of history on native sovereignty, while highlighting BIA contradictions with respect to its own recognition policy.

Until the 1970s, the Abenaki continued to isolate themselves in their own communities. Then, in 1972, influenced by the increased political activism of indigenous peoples throughout the Western Hemisphere, the Abenaki established a "Tribal Council" and declared themselves a nation. They petitioned the state of Vermont for hunting and fishing rights in 1976. That same year, the Abenaki won their most significant concessions from the state of Vermont, when the governor, Thomas P. Salmon, designated the Abenaki an "Indian tribe." The order created a commission to "study their problems" and "review their claims" to aboriginal hunting and fishing rights. It noted that the modern Abenaki traced descent from an aboriginal nation, that they had a government, and that the Canadian government had recognized the Abenaki of Canada. It did not concede any particular obligation to restore Abenaki rights or resources, however.

The relative progress was short-lived, for the next administration revoked Salmon's order the following year. Republican Governor Richard A. Snelling prefaced his revocation with a patronizing paragraph noting that the state of Vermont was "aware of problems common to persons of American Indian heritage" in Vermont. He created yet another commission to advise him of discrimination against Indians, assist them in obtaining social services and gather information "of use and interest relating to Indian affairs." Without a single word of justification, he revoked Governor Salmon's Executive Order 36, which had recognized the Abenaki under the federal definition of a "tribe."

In response, the Abenaki staged fish-ins and issued their own license plates marked "Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi," which led to the arrests of many Indians and their supporters. In 1989, Vermont Judge Wolchik upheld Abenaki aboriginal title to a portion of their homeland, and dismissed charges against the fish-in and license plate defendants. Wolchik further ruled that the state could not appeal against any Abenaki defendants. The state circumvented Wolchik's edict against appeal by prosecuting defendants who did not meet the judge's definition of who was Abenaki.

Fourth World Bulletin • July 1993

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