Emerson College Library: National Native American Heritage Month: Politics, Government and Movements

Tribal Sovereignty and the United States Government

American Indian Politics and the American Political System by David E. Wilkins
American Indian Politics and the American Political System provides a comprehensive introduction to the history, structure, and function of tribal governments and their relationship to contemporary American politics. . David E. Wilkins expertly situates the 562 federally-recognized Native nations (and non-recognized groups) in historical context, while paying heed to the unique territorial and cultural rights that make this such a volatile field of study. Wilkins demonstrates that American Indian politics is a mixture of tribal government interacting with other polities, multiple layers of citizenship, indigenous activism and interest group activity, economic development, and media.
The Invasion of Indian Country in the Twentieth Century by Donald Fixico
The Invasion of Indian Country in the Twentieth Century, Second Edition is updated through the first decade of the twenty-first century and contains a new chapter challenging Americans--Indian and non-Indian--to begin healing the earth. This analysis of the struggle to protect not only natural resources but also a way of life serves as an indispensable tool for students or anyone interested in Native American history and current government policy with regard to Indian lands or the environment.
Tribes, Treaties, and Constitutional Tribulations by Vine Deloria; David E. Wilkins
In this book, two prominent scholars of American Indian law and politics undertake a full historical examination of the relationship between Indians and the United States Constitution that explains the present state of confusion and inconsistent application in U.S. Indian law. The authors examine all sections of the Constitution that explicitly and implicitly apply to Indians and discuss how they have been interpreted and applied from the early republic up to the present. They convincingly argue that the Constitution does not provide any legal rights for American Indians and that the treaty-making process should govern relations between Indian nations and the federal government.
Uneven Ground by David E. Wilkins and K. Tsianina Lomawaima
In the early 1970s, the federal government began recognizing self-determination for American Indian nations. David E. Wilkins and K. Tsianina Lomawaima discuss how the political rights and sovereign status of Indian nations have variously been respected, ignored, terminated, and unilaterally modified by federal lawmakers as a result of the ambivalent political and legal status of tribes under western law.

Struggles with United States Legal System

American Indian Sovereignty and the U. S. Supreme Court by David E. Wilkins
In this book, David Wilkins charts the "fall in our democratic faith" through fifteen landmark cases in which the Supreme Court significantly curtailed Indian rights. He offers compelling evidence that Supreme Court justices selectively used precedents and facts, both historical and contemporary, to arrive at decisions that have undermined tribal sovereignty, legitimated massive tribal land losses, sanctioned the diminishment of Indian religious rights, and curtailed other rights as well.
In the Courts of the Conqueror by Walter Echo-Hawk
The fate of Native Americans has been dependent in large part upon the recognition and enforcement of their legal, political, property, and cultural rights as indigenous peoples by American courtse. Echo-Hawk delves into the dark side of the courts, calling for a paradigm shift in American legal thinking. Each case study includes historical, contemporary, and political context from a Native American perspective, and the case's legacy on Native America. In the Courts of the Conqueror is a comprehensive history of Indian Country from a new and unique viewpoint. It is a vital contribution to American history.
Killers Of The Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
Presents a true account of the early twentieth-century murders of dozens of wealthy Osage and law-enforcement officials, citing the contributions and missteps of a fledgling FBI that eventually uncovered one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

Tribal Justice
Tribal Justice is a feature documentary about a little known, but effective, criminal justice reform movement in American today: the efforts of tribal courts to create alternative justice systems based on their traditions. In California, two formidable Native American women are among those leading the way. Abby Abinanti, Chief Judge of the Yurok Tribe on the northeast coast, and Claudette White, Chief Judge of the Quechan Tribe in the southeastern desert, are creating innovative systems that focus on restoring rather than punishing offenders in order to keep tribal members out of prison, prevent children from being taken from their communities, and stop the school-to-prison pipeline that plagues their young people.