Hypothetical: A New Homestead Act

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by kepp

How much influence would the US government have/exert? What would the justice system look like and how would that system be reconciled with the natives' existing laws?

The army comes by occasionally for a welfare check as noted in the original post, and an extension office worker comes once a month for farming advice.

There is an American justice system. The court is in the big city that's four days away, but the judge does a circuit riding thing to the small towns, so once a month you have a court day in the small town that's one day away. Law enforcement is formally done by the army or a lone sheriff who patrols in a Land Rover across the 1,000 farms in the region, so if there's trouble it'll take a day or two or three for him to respond.

This is an American territory so the natives' existing laws will be politely but explicitly ignored, which is another thing they don't like.