In law, a ward is someone placed under the protection of a legal guardian. A court may take responsibility for the legal protection of an individual, usually either a child or incapacitated person, in which case the ward is known as a ward of the court, a ward of the state or formerly as a ward in Chancery. [1]
United States governmental policy toward Native Americans formerly treated Indian tribes both as independent nations and as "wards of the state". This was contradictory because while they were treated as "independent", they were also considered "incapacitated individuals". This policy was revoked with the policy of assimilation and, eventually, the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.
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