Just and lawful war’ as genocidal war in the (United States) Northwest Ordinance and Northwest Territory, 1787–1832

Bibliographic Data

ID6196848
AuthorsJeffrey Ostler (Russian State Agrarian Correspondence University, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume18
Issue1
Pages1-20
Publication date2016-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Genocide Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1462-3528 • E-ISSN: 1469-9494
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14623528.2016.1120460
OpenAlexW2269000834
LanguageEN
Citations received3

This article focuses on the United States Northwest Ordinance of 1787's profession of ‘utmost good faith’ towards Indians and its provision for ‘just and lawful wars’ against them. As interpreted by US officials as they authorized and practised war against native communities in the Northwest Territory from 1787 to 1832, the ‘just and lawful wars’ clause legalized wars of ‘extirpation’ or ‘extermination’, terms synonymous with genocide by most definitions, against native people who resisted US demands that they cede their lands. Although US military operations seldom achieved extirpation, this was due to their ineptness and the success of indigenous strategies rather than an absence of intention. When US military forces did succeed in achieving their objective, the result was massacre, as revealed in the Black Hawk War of 1832. US policy did not call for genocide in the first instance, preferring that Indians embrace the gift of civilization in exchange for their lands. Should Indians reject this display of ‘utmost good faith’, however, US policy legalized genocidal war against them

Civilization · Criminology · Faith · Genocide · Good faith · Indigenous · Political science · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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