Main Point & Understanding the passage

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Main Point & Understanding the passage

by nandy1984 » Tue Jan 31, 2012 6:49 pm
In its 1903 decision in the case of Lone Wolf v.
Hitchcock, the United States Supreme Court rejected
the efforts of three Native American tribes to prevent
the opening of tribal lands to non-Indian settlement
without tribal consent. In his study of the Lone Wolf
case, Blue Clark properly emphasizes the Court's
assertion of a virtually unlimited unilateral power of
Congress (the House of Representatives and the
Senate) over Native American affairs. But he fails to
note the decision's more far-reaching impact: shortly
after Lone Wolf, the federal government totally
abandoned negotiation and execution of formal written
agreements with Indian tribes as a prerequisite for the
implementation of federal Indian policy. Many
commentators believe that this change had already
occurred in 1871 when-following a dispute between
the House and the Senate over which chamber should
enjoy primacy in Indian affairs-Congress abolished
the making of treaties with Native American tribes.
But in reality the federal government continued to
negotiate formal tribal agreements past the turn of the
century, treating these documents not as treaties with
sovereign nations requiring ratification by the Senate
but simply as legislation to be passed by both houses
of Congress. The Lone Wolf decision ended this era of
formal negotiation and finally did away with what had
increasingly become the empty formality of obtaining
tribal consent.

Hello friends, Can you help me how to come up with the main point of the above passage. Please explain how you do it..Thanks...
Source: — Reading Comprehension |