The Federal Indian Trust Responsibility is a legal obligation under which the United States has charged itself
with moral obligations of the highest responsibility and trust toward American Indian tribes (Seminole Nation v.
United States, 1942; Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 1831). Over the years, the trust doctrine has been the center
of numerous other Supreme Court cases and it is one of the most important principles in federal American Indian
law.
The federal Indian trust responsibility holds the United States legally responsible for the protection of tribal lands,
assets, resources, and treaty rights. The Supreme Court suggests that the Federal Indian Trust Responsibility entails
legal duties, moral obligations, and the fulfillment of understandings and expectations that have arisen over the
entire course of dealings between the U.S. and the tribes.
The federal Indian trust duty is the basis of a current longstanding lawsuit brought by individual American Indian
landholders against the federal government. The individual American Indian landholders assert that the federal
government breached its trust duty to protect their assets, provide an accounting of their assets, and provide them
the correct compensation for the leasing of their lands (see
www.indiantrust.com for more information).