The conquest of the indigenous American is based on the notion that they are barbarians and have no prior claim to their ancestral land. The US authority dates back to the European colonial occupation and is itself based on the imperial doctrine of 'discovery'. The operation of this came with the arrival of Columbus and the two papal bulls of the fifteenth century, which served as its ideological underpinning. The subordinate status of Native Americans has allowed the US to designate them as political vassals and their claim as tribal nations is blinkered by laws that do not recognise real sovereignty. Will the impact of the UN declaration override the treaties which led to the determination that they are wards of the US government?