It was during this time that the Indian Claims Commission Act (1946) was passed which established the Indian Claims Commission as a forum for Indian land claims litigation. It was set up by government, it was claimed, to enable tribes to sue the government for breaches of treaty contracts. It guaranteed that even 100-year old land claims could be asserted, something that had hitherto been a barrier to Indian land claims in court. Many hailed the ICC as a major step toward providing justice for Indians by providing the opportunity for legal redress of grievances.
Some Indians, however, were not as strong in their acclaim of the ICC, which, they claimed, created additional obstacles to full legal vindication of land rights. Various aspects of ICC proceedings were criticized. For one the ICC's work was seen to be too slow. There were perpetual delays in proceedings and liberal grantings of extensions of time. For another the ICC became subject to external political pressures to minimize tribal gains. "The essence of the Indian challenges is that the land claims process forced Indian tribes to exchange valid land claims for money damages, therefore precluding Indians from regaining land rights vital to their continued tribal existence" (Shattuck & Norgren 1991:142).1 Moreover, the ICC's accent on monetary compensation was based on the market value of the land at the time of seizure, not on the present-day value.
Further complications arose from the fact that the ICC allowed any individual tribal member or group of tribal members to litigate tribal claims on behalf of an entire tribe, regardless of whether full and proper tribal authorisation had been given them. This has led to some tribal groups, notably the Hopi, Seminole, Oglala and Rosebud Sioux, to argue that in the past attorneys purporting to represent the entire tribe in land claims have only spoken for one faction.
For the government, the establishment of the ICC, with its emphasis on final claims settlement through monetary compensation, was seen to hasten more quickly the goal of Indian assimilation. The final clearing of claims by payment would, the US thought, wipe the slate clean and open up the way for a truly assimilated Indian community.
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