Walter R. Echo-Hawk, in a September 2, 2013, op-ed column for the Bangor Daily News, pointed to what he called "a humanitarian crisis in the five native communities within [the state of] Maine." He wrote that this crisis is a result of "the 19th-century law of colonialism including doctrines of conquest, discovery, plenary power, unfettered guardianship and race [that] defines indigenous rights within the United States."

Strangely, however, his critique of federal Indian law was coupled with a paean to the "founding principles that make human rights the core of [United States] governance."

How is it that human rights are missing in federal Indian law if these rights are built into the foundation of U.S. governance? Put differently, if the U.S. system is premised on human rights, then how is it these human rights are missing from U.S. federal Indian law? How is it possible for a government to be “founded on human rights principles” and at the same time enact an entire system of law that violates those principles as the U.S. has done with federal Indian law?