Johnson v. M'Intosh

The Court held that private citizens cannot purchase lands directly from Native American tribes because ultimate title rests with the discovering sovereign.

Overview

Thomas Johnson bought land from Piankeshaw tribes in 1773, and William M'Intosh later obtained a patent for the same land from the United States. Chief Justice Marshall, for a unanimous Court, articulated the discovery doctrine: European nations, and later the United States, acquired ultimate dominion over tribal lands, leaving tribes a right of occupancy that only the federal government could extinguish. The decision unified national Indian policy, barred competing state and private land claims, and remains foundational, and heavily criticized, in federal Indian law.