Dr. Meyer will discuss the controversy about the “Indian lid,” which referred to all efforts to enforce the anti-liquor provisions contained in the land cession treaties between the federal government and the Anishinaabe from the 1850s and 1860s.
Meyer will demonstrate that the “Indian lid” controversy was about alcohol at the surface level only and had ramifications far beyond Minnesota. The discussions about liquor law enforcement in Minnesota intersected with efforts to navigate the massive legal uncertainties the 1887 General Allotment Act/ 1889 Nelson Act and ensuing laws and litigation had produced. These uncertainties largely centered on: 1. the question of “Indian citizenship,” 2. the definition of “Indian country/territory,” 3. issues of jurisdiction: the rights of the state versus the rights of the federal government to exercise police power.
She will highlight the pivotal role of the “Indian lid” controversy for local and national debates about how to incorporate Native lands and lives into settler colonial legal and political frameworks and modes of territoriality.
Dr. Sabine Meyer is the author of:
We Are What We Drink: The Temperance Battle in Minnesota. University of Illinois Press.
Native Removal Writing: Narratives of Peoplehood, Politics and Law. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.