The road of US Indian law and policy, like its companion to hell, is paved with good intentions. Critics of its generally diabolic outcomes have had little difficulty demonstrating the moral chasm between the appealing rhetoric in which a policy or judgment was framed and the oppressive consequences to which it practically conduced. With a nod to…

This essay examines the depiction of Native Americans by the US Information Agency (USIA), the bureau charged with explaining American politics to the international public during the Cold War. In the 1950s and 1960s, the USIA broadcast the message that Americans had begun to acknowledge their nation's history of conquest and were working to…

The many Coast Salish groups distributed on both sides of the United States-Canada border on the Pacific coast today face significant obstacles to cross the international border, and in some cases are denied passage or intimidated into not attempting to cross. The current situation regarding travel by Aboriginal people reflects the…

This article seeks to explain the nature of the arguments the Iroquois presented to the US government in trying to prevent their removal. In the letters they wrote to the federal government from the 1830s to the 1850s they emphasized their own law as well as that of the United States. They drew on whatever perception of law they deemed was best…

The centering processes of geographic information system (GIS) development at the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was an extension of past cartographic encounters with American Indians through the central control of geospatial technologies, uneven development of geographic information resources, and extension of technically dependent…

Indigenous communities have successfully used Western geospatial technologies (GT) (for example, digital maps, satellite images, geographic information systems (GIS), and global positioning systems (GPS)) since the 1970s to protect tribal resources, document territorial sovereignty, create tribal utility databases, and manage watersheds. The use…

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita affected hundreds of thousands in southern Louisiana. To say that they touched people of every stripe and color dramatically is a gross understatement. Aside from the loss of life and property damage, families were uprooted, traditions disrupted, and one of the largest migrations in American history forced on a state…

American Indian treaties and treaty law may seem to fall solely within the purview of legal methodology and critical analysis, yet the 367 American Indian treaties signed with the US federal government beg for the type of dissection and analysis generally associated with cultural and literary critical theory. The tools by which texts are dissected…

A personal and tribal history outlining the steps that the Coquille took to strengthen the claim to tribal sovereignty through investment in tribal education, active participation in academic research, and the reestablishment of relationships through gift giving is presented. Coquille scholars initiated the tribe's most successful endeavors, the…

Energy in the form of electricity is a hot topic among tribes within the Western Regional Air Partnership (WRAP). For too many people, energy is too expensive, not reliable, or even nonexistent. For many tribal members, up to 20 or 30 percent of income is spent on energy, which is unbelievably high compared to nontribal people in the same area.…

An account of the Miccosukees' struggle to wrest control over their own economic destiny from conservative elements within the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Department of the Interior is provided. The tenacity of Buffalo Tiger and his tribe with the support of Bobo Dean, Commissioner Bruce and the "Young Turks", helped pave the way for…

Examines the complexities of the taxation issue in Indian affairs, both for American Indian reservations and adjacent local governments. Demonstrates the role of statutes and case law in the recurring struggle to balance tribal immunities guaranteed by the federal government with the expectations of non-Indian taxpayers. (SV)

Sees a 1987 Supreme Court decision allowing California tribes to continue operating high-stakes gambling operations as a milestone on the path to the Indian dream of community survival and collective political power. Contrasts this dream with the traditional American Dream of individual economic achievement. Contains 14 references. (SV)

Examines the public confusion and intergovernmental conflicts that arise from overlapping jurisdictions in "Indian Country" (reservations and surrounding counties). Presents legal and proprietal, ethnohistorical, and political-geographical views of Indian Country. Discusses jurisdictional problems related to geography, subject matter…

Examines federal and state governments' attempts to suppress peyote use in Indian rituals as historically Christian-inspired. Focuses on questions of morality versus criminal law. Explains history and development of Native American Church of North America. Examines nine contemporary peyote trials. Concludes larger questions of tribal sovereignty…