530
Stevens, J., dissenting
federal relationship with descendants of those once sovereign peoples.3 The source of the Federal Government's responsibility toward the Nation's native inhabitants, who were subject to European and then American military conquest, has been explained by this Court in the crudest terms, but they remain instructive nonetheless.
"These Indian tribes are the wards of the nation. They are communities dependent on the United States. Dependent largely for their daily food. Dependent for their political rights. . . . From their very weakness and helplessness, so largely due to the course of dealing of the Federal Government with them and the treaties in which it has been promised, there arises the duty of protection, and with it the power. This has always been recognized by the Executive and by Congress, and by this court, whenever the question has arisen." United States v. Kagama, 118 U. S. 375, 383-384 (1886) (emphasis in original).
As our cases have consistently recognized, Congress' plenary power over these peoples has been exercised time and again to implement a federal duty to provide native peoples with special " 'care and protection.' " 4 With respect to the Pueblos in New Mexico, for example, "public moneys have been expended in presenting them with farming implements and utensils, and in their civilization and instruction." United States v. Sandoval, 231 U. S. 28, 39-40 (1913). Today, the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) administers countless modern programs responding to comparably pragmatic concerns, including health, education, housing, and impoverishment. See Office of the Federal Register, United States Government Manual 1999/2000, pp. 311-312. Federal regulation in this area is not limited to the strictly practical
3 See, e. g., United States v. Sandoval, 231 U. S. 28 (1913); Kagama, 118 U. S., at 384-385; Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 5 Pet. 1 (1831).
4 Sandoval, 231 U. S., at 45; Kagama, 118 U. S., at 384-385.
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