The Thirteenth Amendment: Reconsidering Its Impacts On Tribal Governments and Indian Country.

Abstract

Ample scholarship exists regarding American Indians and the Civil War. Likewise, an extensive amount of research concentrates upon the weakening of state power in the wake of the Civil War. However, little attention has been directed toward the constitutional connection between the Civil War Amendments and their direct impacts upon the sovereignty of tribal governments. This article attempts to demonstrate that the Thirteenth Amendment impacted the long term sovereignty of Indian Tribes by affording Congress the authority to directly expand its reach over Indian Country in ways that it had hitherto not been able to influence.