War powers are the foundation of federal domination of Natives.

While the Indian Commerce Clause and the Treaty Power comprised the basis of much federal legislation dealing with Indian tribes, the War Powers of Congress served as the technical and theoretical underpinning of much federal regulation of the tribes. 42 As Felix S. Cohen put it: "Although comparatively little has been written about the [W]ar [P]owers of Congress and the Indian, these powers underlay much of the federal power exercised over Indian land and Indians during the early history of the Republic. In international law conquest brings legal power to govern. ' The prevalence of the War Powers as the main basis for Indian regulation is illustrated by the fact that both the Congress of the Confederation and the first Congress of the United States placed Indian affairs under the auspices of the War Department.44 Thus, from 1786 until jurisdiction over Indian affairs was transferred to the Department of the Interior in 1849,41 control over relations with Indian tribes was vested in the War Department, a clear indicator of the true nature of the relationship between the federal government and the tribes. Further evidence of the military mindset in dealing with Indian tribes is the interplay between Congress's exercise of the Treaty Power and its War Power.46 "The early dominance of the Treaty Clause as a source of federal authority illustrates that-at least during the first century of America's national existence-Indian affairs were more an aspect of military and foreign policy than a subject of domestic or municipal law."4' 7 Early reliance on the War Powers as the theoretical basis for regulating Indian tribes has left its mark on subsequent policies and laws affecting Indians." Part of this "heritage of decades of military control"49 is the methodology of the Supreme Court in reviewing Indian law cases.