The Refusal In International Perspective

The Black Hills dispute is not unique in the history of Indigenous land claims and national legal systems, and the international perspective illuminates some dimensions of the refusal that are otherwise less visible.

Comparable situations have developed in other countries where Indigenous nations have pursued legal claims for land that was taken in violation of treaties or equivalent agreements.

In Canada, the treaties signed with First Nations and the subsequent dispossession have produced a parallel landscape of legal claims and complex settlements.

In Australia, the Mabo decision of 1992 established native title as a legal concept and opened a new phase of land claim settlements that has produced a mixed record.

The specific feature of the Black Hills situation — a monetary judgment uncollected because its acceptance would extinguish the underlying land claim — has parallels elsewhere.