The Worst Trickster Story Ever Told (1886)

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When did the federal government's self-appointed, essentially limitless authority over Native America become constitutional? The story they have chosen to tell is wrong. It is time to tell a better story. Thus begins Keith Richotte's playful, unconventional look at Native American and Supreme Court history. At the center of his account is the mystery of a massive federal authority called plenary power. When the Supreme Court first embraced plenary power in the 1880s it did not bother to seek any legal justification for the decision – it was simply rooted in racist ideas about tribal nations. By the 21st century, however, the Supreme Court was telling a different story, with opinions crediting the U.S. Constitution as the explicit source of federal plenary power. So, when did the Supreme Court change its story? Just as importantly, why did it change its story? And what does this change mean for Native America, the Supreme Court, and the