Native America, Discovered and Conquered

Robert J. Miller is Faculty Director, Rosette LLP, American Indian Economic Development Program, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University and Chief Justice, Court of Appeals, Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon. He is a citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.

• Series ForewordForeword by Elizabeth FurseAcknowledgmentsPrefaceIntroduction1. The Doctrine of Discovery2. The Doctrine of Discovery in America3. Thomas Jefferson and the Doctrine of Discovery4. Thomas Jefferson, Manifest Destiny, and the Indian Nations5. Lewis and Clark and Discovery6. Manifest Destiny and Discovery7. The United States' Exercise of Discovery against the Indian Nations, 1774–2005ConclusionNotesSelected BibliographyIndex

"In rationales for the invasion of the Americas, one legal instrument stands out in high relief: Europe's so-called Doctrine of Discovery. In the first third of the 19th century, it morphed into the purely US doctrine of Manifest Destiny. Modern US historians know this much, but nearly none know the legal complexity or sweep of these ideas. When they are laid shockingly bare, as in Miller's important book, they are quickly seen to have been both idiotic and revered. Americans easily grasped the Doctrine of Discovery's ten legalisms for land seizure and incidental genocide before the 20th century, with the later Manifest Destiny dashing even the pretense of Native rights. Miller walks readers through deep, consistent evidence that Thomas Jefferson patterned his Louisiana expansionism upon the legal pretexts of discovery, setting up removal in the process. Miller carefully traces the racist, greedy religiosity of Manifest Destiny next used to seize Indian land, especially in Oregon, showing it also as the basis for laws applied to Native Americans that appallingly continue in effect into the present. A must read. Essential. All libraries serving students of any period of US history." - Choice