SEPTEMBER 22, 1783

CONFEDERATION CONGRESS PROCLAMATION OF 1783

By this proclamation, Congress prohibited the extinguishment of aboriginal title in the U.S. without the consent of the Federal government. It was based upon Great Britain’s Royal Proclamation of 1763 and continued in force after the ratification of the United States Constitution through the Nonintercourse Acts of 1790, 1793, 1796, 1799, 1802, and 1833. During the Articles of Confederation-era, several U.S. states, particularly New York, purchased lands from Indians without the consent of Congress. In the 1970s, the Supreme Court’s decision in Oneida Indian Nation of New York v. County of Oneida, 414 U.S. 661 (1974) permitted tribes to pursue such claims in Federal courts. The Oneida and other tribes challenged such state conveyances as contrary to the Proclamation. However, the Second Circuit has held that Congress had neither the authority nor the intent to prohibit such purchases within the borders of individual states, and thus that the Proclamation applied only to the Federal territories.

Source:  Wikipedia

Seal Copy:  Samhanin, 10/3/2023. Great Seal of the United States of America.  Public Domain.