The Indian Claims Act denied Tribes land restoration, money only.

Evidence

President Harry Truman signed the Indian Claims Act into law on August 13, 1946, with the statement: “I am glad to sign my name to a measure…which removes a lingering discrimination against our First Americans and gives them the same opportunities that our laws extend to all other American citizens to vindicate their property rights and contracts in the courts against violations by the Federal Government itself.” The legislation established the Indian Claims Commission, a panel of three appointed commissioners (later expanded to five) that was to hear claims, make decisions, and complete its business ten years from the date of the commission’s first meeting. The process set forth was the equivalent of holding mini trials over the course of a decade and initiating a fact-finding campaign, followed by the commission’s review and final opinion announcing any monetary awards to be issued. Noticeably absent was the possibility of land being returned to Tribal Nations—the one thing Tribal Nations wanted. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 153

Categorization

• XREF: Money-not-land mirrors the reparations architecture in the Whiteness of Wealth diagnosis and Brown’s own claim that remedies must match what was taken.
• QUESTION: Why were Tribes denied land return specifically? This structural gap deserves chasing.