The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Johnson v. McIntosh established the basic principles that govern American Indian property rights to this day. In the case, more than one Anglo-American purchaser claimed title to the same land in what is now southern Illinois. The Piankeshaw Indians had deeded the land twice--once to speculators in 1775, and again, thirty years later, to the United States by treaty. The Court decided in favor of William McIntosh,...