Aboriginal title statutes in the Thirteen Colonies

Aboriginal title statutes in the Thirteen Colonies were one of the principal subjects of legislation by the colonial assemblies in the Thirteen Colonies. With the exception of Delaware, every colony codified a general prohibition on private purchases of Native American lands without the consent of the government. Disputes were generally resolved by special interest legislation or war. Mohegan Indians v. Connecticut (1705–73), a lawsuit that proceeded for 70 years under special royal enabling acts only to be dismissed on non-substantive grounds, was the first and only judicial test of indigenous tenure.^[1]

Aboriginal title remained a central political and economic issue and was listed as one of the enumerated grievances in the Declaration of Independence. Regardless, colonial land law relating to indigenous peoples became the foundation for aboriginal title in the United States during the Articles of Confederation-era and after the ratification of the United States Constitution. The colonial-law prohibition was codified at the federal level by the Confederation Congress Proclamation of 1783 and the Nonintercourse Acts of 1790, 1793, 1796, 1799, 1802, and 1834.

Pre-Revolutionary land transactions remained the subject of political and legal disputes well after Independence.^[2] However, in sharp contrast to post-1790 transactions, no Indian tribe has yet succeeded in litigating or receiving compensation for a pre-1790 transaction. The prevailing view remains that the colonial governments, and the state governments that succeeded them during the Confederation era, had the power to authorize the alienation of indigenous lands within their borders.^[3]