The newly established United States immediately began to address land ownership issues on its frontier. It also
needed a national policy for Indian relations as ruthless conflicts continued among tribes and frontier
populations. The 1787 Northwest Ordinance established U.S. claim to the newly gained lands and recognized
Indian rights of possession to their existing holdings on those lands. The Ordinance established how newly
acquired lands from the British, not previously part of the original colonies, would be governed. Individual
state claims, such as Virginia's, were no longer valid. The Ordinance stated that Indian "lands and property shall
never be taken from them without their consent." The U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1789, further recognized
Indian nations as one of three types of sovereign governments in the United States, the other two being the
states and the federal government. Article 1 of the Constitution gave Congress authority to "regulate commerce
with . . . the Indian Tribes" and Article VI recognized Indian treaties along with acts of Congress as the
"supreme law of the land.