The federal government and the Indian Nations have a dubious or even abusive relationship. From the very beginning, the U.S. government wished to control the Native Americans, eliminate conflict between them and the new settlers, and attempt to Westernize the Native Americans. To resolve the situation with the Native Americans, the government placed them on reservations. Many Native American tribes were forced from the land that was rightfully theirs, to lands that were undesirable and sometimes almost uninhabitable; these lands became their reservations. Sometimes, tribes were able to remain on their original land, but only a small portion of it.

      Many of the problems that Native Americans face can be traced back to the federal trust doctrine that was upheld by Chief Justice John Marshall in 1831. This doctrine not only says that all Native American affairs are to be handled by the government, but it also states that the government is the legal owner of all Native American land. Marshall described this relationship as "resembling that of a ward to his guardian". Essentially, all the Native American lands is held in trust by the federal government. One of the biggest problems resulting from this doctrine is that they are unable to make a livelihood off of their land. 

      Native Americans are sitting on billions of dollars of natural resources, yet they are unable to gain from it. The Bureau of Indian Affairs controls every aspect of energy development on these lands that are held in federal trust. There are four different federal agencies and 49 steps that control and review energy development on Native American land. It can take years for companies to get approval to mine or drill for natural resources on these lands. At any time during this process, these agencies can request more information or entirely shut down the entire project. This discourages companies from investing their capital on extracting energy resources from Native American lands. Instead, companies would rather go to non-Native American land where they only have to go through four steps and the approval process only takes a few months. In addition, even when a company gets approval and starts energy development on these lands, the tribes are not allowed to negotiate the royalty agreement between the tribes and the companies. Only the Bureau of Indian Affairs has the right to negotiate and manage the royalties generated from the natural resources. This income is supposed to be returned to the tribes, however there are many times where this money is just "lost". The tribes filed a class action law suit against the Bureau of Indian Affairs over the lost revenue of these royalties. The courts found that the Bureau of Indian Affairs sold the natural resources for far less than what they were actually worth. The courts made the Bureau of Indian Affairs reimburse the Indian Nation $3.4 billion. Shawn Regan, author of Unlocking the Wealth of Indian Nations: Overcoming Obstacles to Tribal Energy Development, said "As long as tribes are denied the right to control their own resources, they will remain locked in poverty and dependence". 

      The situation for some tribes is even more dire. Even today, the government is still stripping Native peoples of their land. For example, the San Carlos Apache Nation is attempting to prevent the government from selling their sacred land to mining companies. It's even easier to take the land of these Native communities when they are not recognized as an official tribe by the government, and thus do not have the rights of Native peoples. This is the case for the Kanaka Maoli in Hawaii, which is an unrecognized tribe, who are trying to protect their sacred mountain from the development of a telescope. The magnitude of the problem even extends to famous monuments, as the Great Sioux Nation fights to have their sacred Black Hills returned, which had been taken in 1877 for the construction of Mount Rushmore.