Title I — Recognition of Trust Responsibility

the relationship of Indian tribes to the United States is founded in part on the settled doctrine of the law of nations that when a stronger sovereign assumes authority over a weaker sovereign, the stronger one assumes a duty of protection for the weaker one, which does not surrender its right to self-government;

the United States fiduciary responsibilities to Indians also constitutes a foundational basis for, not merely a function of, congressional legislation regarding Indians because it constitutes an inherent presupposition of our constitutional structure, which provides an inherent limit on the exercise and application of the Indian Commerce Clause and the Treaty Clause of the Constitution;

the United States fiduciary responsibilities to Indians also are founded in part on specific commitments made through written treaties and agreements securing peace, in exchange for which Indians have surrendered claims to vast tracts of land, which provided legal consideration for permanent, ongoing performance of Federal trust duties; and

the foregoing historic Federal-tribal relations and understandings have benefitted the people of the United States as a whole for centuries and established enduring and enforceable Federal obligations to which the national honor has been committed.

enforceable fiduciary duties necessarily arise when the United States assumes control or supervision over tribal trust assets even though nothing is said expressly in the governing statutes or regulations, unless Congress has expressly specified otherwise;

in general, the most exacting common-law fiduciary standards which govern private trustees also govern the United States when it manages Indian trust assets, and enforceable Federal trust duties for Indian trust asset management are not limited to the express terms of statutes and regulations;

the fact that the United States simultaneously performs another task for another interest that Congress has obligated it by statute to do does not compromise or limit the United States enforceable fiduciary obligations to Indians; and

the United States fiduciary responsibilities to Indian tribes include and are not limited by a duty to promote tribal self-determination regarding governmental authority and economic development.