weakness and helplessness, so largely due to
the course of dealing of the Federal Government with them and the
treaties in which it has been promised, there arises the duty of
protection, and with it the power. This has always been recognized by
the Executive and by Congress, and by this Court, whenever the question
has arisen. * * * The power of the General Government over these
remnants of a race once powerful, now weak and diminished in numbers,
is necessary to their protection, as well as to the safety of those
among whom they dwell. It must exist in that government, because it
never has existed anywhere else, because the theatre of its exercise is
within the geographical limits of the United States, because it has
never been denied, and because it alone can enforce its laws on all the
tribes." Moreover, such power was operative within the States.[1034]

Obviously, this line of reasoning renders the commerce clause
superfluous as a source of power over the Indian tribes; and some years
earlier, in 1871, Congress had forbidden the further making of treaties
with them.[1035] However, by a characteristic judicial device the effort
has been made at times to absorb the doctrine of the Kagama case into
the commerce clause,[1036] although more commonly the Court, in
sustaining Congressional legislation, prefers to treat the commerce
clause and "the recognized relations of tribal Indians," as joint
sources of Congress's power.[1037] Most of the cases have arisen, in
fact, in connection with efforts by Congress to ban the traffic in "fire
water" with tribal Indians. In this connection it has been held that
even though an Indian has become a citizen, yet so long as he remains a
member of his tribe, under the charge of an Indian agent, and so long as
the United States holds in trust the title to land which has been
allotted him, Congress can forbid the sale of intoxicants to him.[1038]
Also Congress can prohibit the introduction of intoxicating liquors into
land occupied by a tribe of uncivilized Indians within territory
admitted to statehood.[1039] Nor can a State withdraw Indians within its
borders from the operation of acts of Congress regulating trade with
them by conferring on them rights of citizenship and suffrage, whether
by its constitution or its statutes.[1040] And when a State is admitted
into the Union Congress may, in the enabling act, reserve authority to
legislate in the future respecting the Indians residing w