Analyzes the Supreme Court's decision of the case Merrion v. Jicarilla Apache Tribe, concerned with the power to tax non-Indians doing business on the reservation. (ERB)

Progressive-era bureaucrats viewed subdivision of Indian lands, establishment of tribal governments, and transfer of federal responsibilities to the states as stages of a single policy of gradual integration of Indians. Arthur Ludington's 1912 long-term plan for citizenship training and assimilation accurately anticipated events of the next 50…

While the criminal reform bill, S.1722m, has great potential for straightening out the jurisdictional morass on Indian reservations, it is evading the more controversial issues. After describing past difficulties in determining criminal jurisdiction on tribal lands, this article discusses needed reforms and what is missing in the new law.…

With the backing of America's wealthy citizenry, Joseph Dixon organized the 1913 Expedition of Citizenship in an effort to advance the acculturation of American Indians. Dixon's efforts were a melodramatic charade in which the Indians gained nothing but patriotic rituals, still practiced at tribal meetings and powwows. Too late, Dixon realized the…

This unit presents information on Native American treaties as a basis for rational thought on current controversies over these treaties' status. The unit contains three sections with five lesson plans each. Each lesson includes student material, goals, vocabulary, and questions for discussion. Section 1 covers (1) the purposes of government, and…

Federal taxpayers may spend more, nominally, on each Indian than they do on other Americans, but the permanent benefits to reservation communities have been smaller. One-fifth of all spending maintains federal agencies. Funds that do reach reservations tend to be absorbed by tribal administration and unproductive employment. (ERB)