#26 - Concept Reference, Must Be True, Author's Perspective

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation
(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=14182)

The correct answer choice is (D)

Since we know that Passage A does not discuss the Nonintercourse Act, this question requires us to again expand on the text of the passage to apply Passage A to the content of Passage B. The Nonintercourse Act was designed to protect Native Americans against fraudulent transfers of Native American lands to “others.” The relevant portion of Passage A was the principle of justice in transfer. Our prephrase is that the author of Passage A would characterize the purpose of the Nonintercourse Act as an attempt to make certain that transfers of Native American lands were done in accordance with the principle of justice in transfer.

Answer choice (A): To the contrary, the author of Passage A would argue that eighteenth century property holdings that involved improperly acquired Native American lands could not be made legitimate, but rather the land should be returned to the Native Americans.

Answer choice (B): We have no reason to believe that there were other laws designed to protect Native Americans against fraudulent land transfers, so this answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (C): The principle of justice in acquisition is irrelevant to the Nonintercourse Act, which dealt with the transfer of lands previously owned by Native Americans.

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice, for the reasons stated in our prephrase.

Answer choice (E): The Nonintercourse Act applied to the transfer of lands from Native Americans to others, not to the return of improperly transferred lands back to Native Americans. The principle of rectification involved returning improperly transferred property. So, this answer choice is incorrect.

[Cking14]

Hi,

I chose answer choice (E) for this question and the correct answer is (D). I flat out did not understand this question. I thought that the Indian Nonintercourse Act WAS implementing the principle of rectification, but obviously, I missed something. I did horrible on these. Can someone explain what is going on with this one?

Thanks!
Chris

[David Boyle]

Hi,

I chose answer choice (E) for this question and the correct answer is (D). I flat out did not understand this question. I thought that the Indian Nonintercourse Act WAS implementing the principle of rectification, but obviously, I missed something. I did horrible on these. Can someone explain what is going on with this one?

Thanks!
Chris

Hello,

While rectification is important, it seems that the Act may have been passed to prevent future evils rather than to rectify past ones. (Maybe it could be evoked to rectify past ones, but that may not be its main purpose.)
The stimulus even refers to the Act and saying, "which requires that all transfers of lands from Native Americans to others be approved by the federal government", with "transfers" being the key word for our purposes here, and chiming with answer D, "prevention of violations of the principle of justice in transfer".)

David

[CJ12345:]

Hi, Powerscore,
I can see why E is correct, but I am wondering why C cannot be correct. Justice in Acquisition is the conditions under which someone can legitimately come to own something that was previously not owned by anyone according to Passage A, and the author of Passage B also said the purpose of the Nonintercourse Act was meant to guarantee security to native Americans against "fraudulent acquisition"

[CJ12345:]

Hi, Powerscore,
I can see why D is correct, but I am wondering why C cannot be correct. Justice in Acquisition is the conditions under which someone can legitimately come to own something that was previously not owned by anyone according to Passage A, and the author of Passage B also said the purpose of the Nonintercourse Act was meant to guarantee security to native Americans against "fraudulent acquisition"

[Robert Carroll]

CJ12345:,

The "acquisition" in Passage B is "acquisition by others of the Native Americans’ land holdings." That doesn't match what you cited in Passage A, where acquisition is, as you point out, "legitimately com[ing] to own something that was previously not owned by anyone." Those aren't the same thing! You got misled by the word "acquisition". Each passage means a totally different thing by it. What Passage B calls "acquisition" passage A calls "transfer."

Robert Carroll

[loopydoesthelsat]

Thank you so much for the helpful information in this thread! I understand why D is right, but am still struggling to fully eliminate E.

When I read lines 36-44 only, D makes perfect sense. It's a forward-looking act meant to guarantee security to Native Americans against fraudulent acquisition by others. Now, all transfers of land from Native Americans to others need to be approved by the federal government.

Then I read lines 44-47, and I get confused again -- these lines are why I ended up picking E in my first round of this passage. I might just be tired from reading the same sentence over and over, but to me, it reads like it's saying that rectification was implemented... several suits were initiated that led to their recovery of lands. Could someone help me better understand why my interpretation of lines 44-47 is incorrect?

[Luke Haqq]

Hi loopydoesthelsat!

For the purposes of this question, lines 37-39 are helpful, which explain what the Indian Nonintercourse Act is. Those lines explain that it "requires that all transfers of lands from Native Americans to others be approved by the federal government." In addition, we're told that the purpose of the act "was meant to guarantee security to Native Americans against fraudulent acquisition by others of the Native Americans’ land holdings" (lines 41-44).

So based on those lines alone, the Indian Nonintercourse Act is dealing with what Passage A identifies as the second principle of justice regarding property, that is, the principle of justice in transfer. As I understand lines 44 to 47, the mentioned lawsuits don't indicate that the purpose of the Act is, for example, to "use historical information about previous situations and injustices done in them, and information about the actual course of events that flowed from these injustices, to produce a description of the property ownership that should have resulted" (lines 29-33). Rather, the Act is there to guarantee just transfers, by prohibiting fraudulent acquisitions by others of Native Americans' lands.