Cruz and Europa v. Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources

American jurisprudence recognizes the Indians' or native Americans' rights to land they have held and occupied before the "discovery" of the Americas by the Europeans. The earliest definitive statement by the U.S. Supreme Court on the nature of aboriginal title was made in 1823 in Johnson & Graham's Lessee v. M'Intosh.[159] In Johnson, the plaintiffs claimed the land in question under two (2) grants made by the chiefs of two (2) Indian tribes. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to recognize this conveyance, the plaintiffs being private persons. The only conveyance that was recognized was that made by the Indians to the government of the European discoverer. Speaking for the court, Chief Justice Marshall pointed out that the potentates of the old world believed that they had made ample compensation to the inhabitants of the new world by bestowing civilization and Christianity upon them; but in addition, said the court, they found it necessary, in order to avoid conflicting settlements and consequent war, to establish the principle that discovery gives title to the government by whose subjects, or by whose authority, the discovery was made, against all other European governments, which title might be consummated by possession.[160] The exclusion of all other Europeans gave to the nation making the discovery the sole right of acquiring the soil from the natives and establishing settlements upon it. As regards the natives, the court further stated that: "Those relations which were to exist between the discoverer and the natives were to be regulated by themselves. The rights thus acquired being exclusive, no other power could interpose between them. In the establishment of these relations, the rights of the original inhabitants were, in no instance, entirely disregarded; but were necessarily, to a considerable extent, impaired. They were admitted to be the rightful occupants of the soil, with a legal as well as just claim to retain possession of it, and to use it according to their own discretion; but their rights to complete sovereignty, as independent nations, were necessarily diminished, and their power to dispose of the soil at their own will, to whomsoever they pleased, was denied by the fundamental principle that discovery gave exclusive title to those who made it. While the different nations of Europe respected the right of the natives as occupants, they asserted the ultimate dominion to be in themselves; and claimed and exercised, as a consequence of this ultimate dominion, a power to grant the soil, while yet in possession of the natives. These grants have been understood by all to convey a title to the grantees, subject only to the Indian right of occupancy."[161] Thus, the discoverer of new territory was deemed to have obtained the exclusive right to acquire Indian land and extinguish Indian titles. Only to the discoverer-- whether to England, France, Spain or Holland-- did this right belong and not to any other nation or private person. The mere acquisition of the right nonetheless did not extinguish Indian claims to land. Rather, until the discoverer, by purchase or conquest, exercised its right, the concerned Indians were recognized as the "rightful occupants of the soil, with a legal as well as just claim to retain possession of it." Grants made by the discoverer to her subjects of lands occupied by the Indians were held to convey a title to the grantees, subject only to the Indian right of occupancy. Once the discoverer purchased the land from the Indians or conquered them, it was only then that the discoverer gained an absolute title unrestricted by Indian rights. The court concluded, in essence, that a grant of Indian lands by Indians could not convey a title paramount to the title of the United States itself to other parties, saying: "It has never been contended that the Indian title amounted to nothing. Their right of possession has never been questioned. The claim of government extends to the complete ultimate title,