Research Paper on:
Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Protective Treaties

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
towards their citizens (Anonymous, 1996). Yet, despite this extensive legal framework to protect the human rights of European citizens, atrocities, such as the persecution that occurred in Kosovo, are part  of recent memory. Such facts naturally lead to the question as to whether or not treaties are the best method for ensuing the rights of either minorities or indigenous peoples.  To determine this question, the following examination looks at the record of the United States and its relations with the indigenous tribes who were established in North America when  Europeans arrived in the fifteenth century. This record shows that while Native American rights have gained more ground in the modern era, the pattern established in earlier eras prevails whenever  Native American rights are considered to be in opposition of the good of the state. In order to appreciate the current state of treaty negotiations with Native Americans, it is  first necessary to see their position in an historical context. History As soon as Europeans set foot on the continents of North and South America, Native American tribes  began ceding tracks of their land through treaties (Capps, 1973). This process quickened in North America, when British colonies became the United States. The first of 370 treaties between the  US and Native American tribes was signed in 1778 (Capps, 1973). This treaty was with the Delawares, whose tribal land once extended from Ohio to the Atlantic (Capps, 1973). In  return for the Delawares siding with the colonists against the British, a treaty was formulated that provided for the organization of an Indian state, headed by the Delaware tribe (Capps,  1973). Over the next century, this contract became meaningless as it was preempted by a series of 18 new treaties that pushed