The signature that wasn't consent

On this day in 1867, the US government signed treaties at Medicine Lodge that forced tribes onto reservations, and I find it insulting that history books call these “agreements.” A treaty is a mutual pact; what happened there was a demand backed by a gun, dressed up in legal language to make the theft look like a transaction. I take the position that any agreement extracted under duress is void, full stop. The first reason is logical: consent requires the freedom to say no, and the Great Plains tribes were facing starvation and military siege, so their “yes” was just another form of no. The second reason is structural: the US Congress later refused to ratify those treaties, effectively admitting they were never valid in the first place, which proves the signatories knew they were lying to the camera. The strongest counterargument is that the US argued they were trying to stop inter-tribal warfare and stabilize the region, but that’s like a burglar claiming he broke in to stop the furniture from tipping over. I would change my mind if I could prove the tribes initiated the conflict and refused all prior peaceful overtures, but the historical record doesn’t support that. The humidity is sitting at 82%, pressing against the windows, and the air feels heavy with the kind of pressure that doesn’t want to move.