In the mid 19th century, the United States forcibly removed Bill Thorne Jr.'s Cherokee ancestors from Georgia and marched them to barren Oklahoma in the middle of the United States. Only his great-grandmother survived the "Trail of Tears" that killed thousands in the forced migration aimed at clearing territory for white settlers. That history and broken US promises of services and sovereignty for Indians remain strong in Thorne's mind. "It just seems unfair that people are treated that way and are not in some fashion, I guess, compensated," said Thorne, the chief executive of a New Mexico hospital serving Indians.
"They owe something to me." "There's been no apologies or anything and there has just been this half-baked attempt by the government of furnishing Indians a certain amount of discretionary education and things."
In the 19th century treaties, Washington shunted Indians onto reservations in exchange for promises of continuing education, healthcare and other services. Just about everyone says the government did a poor job of honouring the deal.
"Whether the system of Indian treaties were ever meant to work is a matter of debate, but in reality, most Indian treaties were broken," the US State Department says on its Web site.
In Indian country, sentiment remains very strong that Washington should still live up to what some call the "Original Promise" in which tribes gave up land for sovereign status on reservations and federal help. They say the government has long provided inferior services and underfunded its programs.
At the same time, some tribes are experiencing a political backlash as some citizens and politicians have lashed out against Indian casinos which are legal on Indian land but not elsewhere in many states.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said last year that "the Indians are ripping us off" by not paying state taxes.
More radical groups in states such as Montana have used even more strident language in efforts to curtail Indian efforts to exercise their sovereignty.
Such sentiments infuriate Indian leaders.
"On the side of the US government, they're working on doing away with those treaties," said Joe Shirley Jr., president of the Navajo Nation, the largest US reservation. "It wouldn't surprise me if there would be an announcement tomorrow that would abrogate treaty rights."
Complicating Native American relations with the federal government is a long-running multibillion dollar lawsuit by Indians who allege the Interior Department mismanaged trust accounts set up in the late 19th century to handle proceeds from oil, gas and minerals extracted from their lands.
"There truly were grave injustices inflicted upon Native Americans," said US Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
"At the same time it shouldn't put you on such a guilt trip, as it does some people, that whatever Native Americans do today is excused by history," he told reporters this month. "We did sign sovereign treaties that made certain guarantees which does give Native Americans a unique status in the United States of America."
The growth of Indian casinos in recent years is the most visible way tribes have exercised sovereignty to their advantage in recent years. Still, many Indians and experts say the present US relationship with the tribes is broken, full of hypocrisy and in need of a fundamental revision.
"Tribes today are not sovereign," said Ross Swimmer, a Cherokee who is the special trustee for American Indians at the Interior Department. "You can't sit there and be a sovereign and be dictated to by another sovereign,"
"There needs to be a whole new paradigm," he said. "We have to start over."
Back in New Mexico, Bill Thorne Jr. said the vast majority of Native Americans believe the federal government still has a special responsibility and a final financial settlement might be a way of recasting ties without cheating Indians anew.
"If they wrote a check for a million I'd say thank you very much," he said.
Although treaties that last for more than a century may be uncommon, Robert Williams, a University of Arizona professor of law and American Indian studies, said many nations with indigenous people such as Canada and New Zealand have similar agreements without an ending date.
"Congress can terminate a treaty tomorrow if it wants to," he said. But "there may be obligations of compensation."
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