Welcome
to
Indigenous
Policy
Journal of the Indigenous Policy Network
(IPN)
Formerly American Indian Policy
| XX | Vol.
XVIV, No. 3__ __ Fall, 2008 REVIEWS:
EXPLAINING CONTEMPORARY FEDERAL INDIAN POLICY: BOOK REVIEW ESSAY Erich Steinman, Pitzer College, Erich_Steinman@pitzer.edu Reviewed texts: The Politics of Minor Concerns: American Indian Policy and Congressional Dynamics, by Charles Turner. University Press of America, 2005. Taking Charge: Native American Self-Determination and Federal Indian Policy, 1975-1993. George Pierre Castile. University of Arizona Press, 2006. Why has there been so little social science research trying to explain recent changes in Federal Indian policy, particularly given the dramatic shifts of the last 40 years? Since 1970 the previous policy of termination gave way to an evolving self-determination policy, a dramatically expanded role for tribal governments, and the emergence of large scale Indian gaming. Even with these striking changes - and the expansion of Indian affairs as a policy area – there have been only a handful of causally-oriented social science analyses of federal Indian policy. Much recent scholarship in the area has been primarily descriptive or interpretive, with research commonly driven by area expertise rather than guided by policy related theory. In his nuanced and theoretically-driven account, Charles Turner argues that Indian policy, like many other areas, is a "minor concern" to both policymakers and policy analysts. As such, Indian policy often doesn't fit the conditions or provide the variables featured by main theoretical approaches to explaining policy outcomes more generally. Unlike most analyses, Turner gathers and utilizes quantitative data to explore Indian policy outcomes. The strength of the analysis is that Turner challenges and tests a number of widely asserted interpretations of Indian policy formation. Most centrally, he examines the common understanding that Indian policy is bipartisan. Turner examines Congressional roll call votes between 1947-2000, as well as party platform rhetoric. Turner finds that party membership matters, but in changing and contextual ways. Voting on Indian issues was partisan both before 1967, and – against common wisdom – after 1978. Turner casts the intervening period as one in which uncertainty about the unfolding policy changes generated uncertain interests, alliances, ideologies, and party positions. After this, however, the central tenets and overall framework of Democratic and Republican Indian policy positions become taken-for-granted. Periodic increases in media attention to Indian affairs function to provide incentives for parties to develop a distinct identity or position. Subsequently, partisan-identified positions shape voting by providing a guide to the vast majority of policymakers, who are generally ignorant of Indian policy issues. With Indian legislation often offering risks but little rewards, risk-averse individual lawmakers can play it safe by following partisan frameworks and voting patterns. By the 1980s, Turner asserts, Indian affairs was a stable national policy area (though still a minor one). Since that time, party membership and region of country have loomed large in explaining votes, with Democrats and legislators in Western states more likely to support Indian interests. But while votes have become more partisan since the decade of dramatic policy change that ended in the late 1970s, party platforms have in general converged. Curiously, as Democratic platforms have given very limited attention to Indian issues since 1988, Republican platform statements about Indian affairs have increased. While Democrats' recent minimalist statements (in the years they have addressed Indian policy) have emphasized upholding treaties and acting with cultural sensitivity, Republican's predominant message over the past two decades has highlighted political self-determination and economic self-sufficiency. Turner's findings about the temporal and shifting nature of partisan Indian affairs voting is an important contribution to the study of federal Indian policy. Testing the assumed nonpartisan nature of Indian policy is a clear example of doing systematic research to challenge conventional wisdom. Similarly, Turner's data-guided speculations about the effects of media attention to Indian policy voting is also a welcome addition. Overall, his grasp of relevant Indian policy and Indian affairs makes him well-equipped to interpret his quantitative findings in an appropriately contextualized fashion. Similarly, his willingness to accommodate the ambiguities and complexities of Indian affairs in conceptualizing his hypotheses and interpreting his data is refreshing, particularly for a scholar producing theoretically framed research. Indeed, one easily imagines that the complexity of Indian affairs (i.e., more than 550 distinct tribal nations) and the lack of systematic or comparable data are factors keeping some policy-oriented scholars at arms length. Yet while doing so Turner simultaneously advances conceptual understanding of "minor concerns." The analysis does suffer from a number of limitations and weaknesses. To its credit and disadvantage, Turner keeps the scope of his analysis consistent. This is a book identifying and explaining some general patterns of Congressional activity (primarily floor and committee voting) regarding Indian policy. Very rarely does Turner make claims beyond the data. One of the few times is his assertion that by the 1980s Indian issues had come to represent merely another interest group rather than a national phenomenon of larger significance. While some shift in public opinion is quite likely, I suspect that this characterization simplifies and overstates a complex shift that involves the symbolically charged backlash that Turner also notes (but doesn't discuss in detail). More to the point, the reliance on a singular quote by former Colorado Representative Ben Nighthorse Campbell does not sufficiently support this claim. Scholars and the public interested in Indian policy may be disappointed to learn that the book does not attempt to explain any particular outcomes, as the author confines the analysis to understanding general patterns of this particular domain of minor concerns. More limiting, though again understandable, given Turner's commitment to systematic quantitative analysis, is the lack of attention to how the respective partisan frameworks and voting patterns emerged and stabilized. If partisan patterns guide the ignorant lawmaker, how, why, and by whom did these broad patterns become taken-for-granted? The importance of these questions calls out for qualitative historical scholarship to complement the important research Turner has produced. The other Indian policy research agenda the analysis suggests, and which Turner mentions amidst a number of more theoretically-oriented research questions, regards the impact of gaming-generated political contributions on (partisan) voting behavior. With well over a decade of largescale Indian gaming revenues by an increasing range of tribes, and similarly increasing political contributions, there will be much to examine in the years ahead even within a focus on Congressional policymaking. In Taking Charge: Native American Self-Determination and Federal Indian Policy, 1975-1993, George Castile also provides an important addition to the limited existing attempts to examine, describe and explain contemporary federal Indian policy development. A long time scholar of American Indians and federal Indian policy, Castile draws on a very different source than Turner for his original data, through extensive archival work in the Presidential libraries of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush. Castile’s masterful grasp of federal Indian policy infuses the book, making the often Byzantine topic extremely clear. The book is tremendously accessible and provides a firm outline of the big picture to the new student of federal Indian policy while also conveying countless subtleties. Like To Show Heart (1998), Castile’s previous book on the foundations of self-determination policy, Taking Charge has a narrative structure, as the author follows the main developments blow-by-blow. In terms of explanation, such a structure has advantages and disadvantages. Most beneficially, it allows Castile to present a coherent and consistent account of the changes as they unfold. For many readers interested in a sophisticated baseline understanding of federal Indian policy, this will fully satisfy. Others, and in particular social scientists looking for a different type of explanation, may have more reservations and questions about the analysis. For scholars interested in a more explicitly causal analysis, Castile’s account appears to provide a series of ad hoc explanations of particular events and actions. No theoretical framework is employed to guide the interpretation of these developments or to provide the basis of the causal claims made, often implicitly, through the narrative. In this sense, Taking Charge is the analytical foil – or complement – to Turner’s theory-driven analysis. The two books highlight the trade-offs of narrative case analysis versus a theoretically-based analysis. Whereas Turner’s analysis can only partly incorporate the larger, and shifting context, Castile’s has other – and distinctively narrative-based – weaknesses. A convincing narrative is best at explaining why a particular thing happened; what it struggles to do is to explain why other things did not. Castile does not choose to seriously explore any counterfactuals (what might have been) and consider why they did not occur. For example, how did self-determination, and its focus on tribal governments, became the only legitimate federal policy approach? In 1971, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act bypassed traditional Native social and political structures and constructed nonprofit corporations as holders of particular Native revenues. Why does this structure not gain more consideration as a model for reforming federal Indian policy? Similarly, in the late 1970s the first of a wave of backlashes to Indian right arose in the west; why have these been so ineffectual in altering federal policy? Relatedly, there are tensions between elements of Castile’s narrative that go unexamined. One instance of this that is clearly within the scope of the Presidential data he utilizes has to do with the relationship between tribal control of federal policies affecting them – the heart of self-determination – and the affirmation of tribal sovereignty (and a government-to-government relationship). Tribal control of federal policies and tribal sovereignty are not identical, a point made repeatedly by tribal advocates, and which can be seen in the 1977 report by the American Indian Policy Review Commission. Nixon promoted self-determination but did not speak of sovereignty or a government-to-government relationship. As is (sometimes grudgingly) noted around Indian Country, Reagan was the first contemporary president to explicitly refer to tribal sovereignty. Why didn’t Nixon do so (or Carter), and why did Reagan? To date, there is no analysis that persuasively and comprehensively accounts for the emergence of explicit federal policy affirmation of tribal sovereignty from the structure of self-determination, though this author has addressed aspects of this change elsewhere (Steinman 2003, 2004, 2005). Similarly, Castile pays no attention to the Environmental Protection Agency, even though it was the first department or agency outside the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to formally recognize and meaningfully implement the affirmation of tribal sovereignty; it was still alone in this regard well into the 1990s. How does this uneven acknowledgement and implementation fit into or challenge Castile’s account? A transformation of federal policy as significant as the explicit affirmation of tribal sovereignty was hardly inevitable under self-determination policy, given the many reversals of federal policy and frequently shifting political winds. Indeed, even in the previous Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) reform era, the many branches of the federal government did not revise their understanding and treatment of tribes; for decades the policy had little impact beyond its more narrow provisions (the limitations thereof which are widely known). Why does self-determination, unlike the IRA, develop into a more robust policy and also become implemented beyond the realm of the BIA? Again, a descriptive narrative of changes as they unfolded cannot easily address such more explicitly analytical questions. One other aspect of Castile’s work also directs attention away from these more muddled parts of federal policy development. Policy development and implementation as conveyed by Taking Charge appears to be a very top-down process. Whereas in To Show Heart, Great Society federal bureaucrats – listening to and supportive of tribes – drive the action, in Taking Charge it is Presidents and their staffs who act. While this focus is understandable given the original data used for the analysis, it is nonetheless problematic in terms of a more integrated and holistic account of policy changes.1 The logic of explanation in the analysis proceeds from non-Indians needs, concerns, and frameworks. The rise of tribal governments is cast as an issue (and goal) of self-determination policy implementation. What is omitted or downplayed in such a focus are tribes’ self-motivated efforts to rebuild Indian governments (Wilkenson 2005). For such a deft and well-written book, this unacknowledged imbalance between the attention given government and tribal actors regarding the development and implementation of policy is problematic. It is also ironic, given the title of the book. While tribes have indeed taken charge since 1975, this book newly reveals less about that process and more about another set of actors’ partial, albeit undoubtedly crucial, influences on federal Indian policy. With its strengths and weaknesses, Castile’s book usefully challenges scholars of Indian self-determination, tribal sovereignty, and federal Indian policy to incorporate the roles played by various key parties and processes in shaping contemporary federal policy. Indeed, taken together, Castile’s two books on the executive branch, Turner’s analysis of Congressional dynamics, and Charles Wilkinson’s (2005) tribally-centered account of the resurgence of Indian nationhood constitute three different prisms through which to understand the extraordinarily complex phenomenon of contemporary federal Indian policy. While balancing these factors in a more satisfyingly integrated account is clearly the task of the whole sub-field rather than achievable through one piece of scholarship, the need is clear. Beyond that, of course, are additional factors, such as the role of the Supreme Court (Wilkins and Richotte 2003, Williams 2005), and more critical perspectives (Biolsi 1992, LaDuke and Churchill 1992, Wilkins 1993). By not accepting the present interpretation of federal Indian policy as a closed topic, scholars can hopefully produce insight into the recent past that also helps illuminate influences on the future. Footnotes 1. Also, Castile surprisingly makes little use of relevant secondary Presidential scholarship, such as analyses of Nixonian policy by Kotlowski (2001) and Skrentny (1996). References Biolsi, Thomas. 1998. Organizing the Lakota: The Political Economy of the New Deal on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.Castile, George Pierre. 1998. To Show Heart: Native American Self-Determination and Federal Indian Policy, 1960-1975. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. Kotlowski, Dean J. 2001. Nixon's Civil Rights: Politics, Principle, and Policy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. LaDuke, Winona and Ward Churchill. 1992. "Native North America: The Political Economy of Radioactive Colonialism." Pp. 241-66. in The State of Native America, edited by Annette Jaimes. Boston: South End Press. Skrentny, John David. 1996. The Ironies of Affirmative Action: Politics, culture, and justice in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Steinman, Erich. 2003. Tribal Governments as Sovereign Governments: The Struggle for Legitimacy. American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, August. Steinman, Erich. 2004. American Federalism and Intergovernmental Innovation in State-Tribal Relations. Publius: The Journal of Federalism 34(2): 95-114. Steinman, Erich. 2005. Legitimizing American Indian Sovereignty: Mobilizing the Constitutive Power of Law through Institutional Entrepreneurship. Law and Society Review 39 (4): 759-792. Wilkins, David E. 1993. "Modernization, Colonialism, Dependency: How Appropriate are These Models for Providing an Explanation of North American Indian `Underdevelopment'?" Ethnic & Racial Studies 16(3): 390-419. Wilkins, David E., and Keith Richotte. 2003. The Rehnquist Court and Indigenous Rights: The Expedited Dimunition of Native Powers of Governance. Publius: The Journal of Federalism 33(3): 83-110. Wilkinson, Charles. 2005. Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations. New York: W. W. NortonWilliam, Robert E. 2005. Like a Loaded Weapon: The Rehnquist Court, Indian Rights, and the Legal History of Racism in America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
REVIEW OF LAURENCE ARMAND FRENCH, LEGISLATING INDIAN COUNTRY: SIGNIICANT MILESTONES IN TRANSFORMING TRIBALISM Stephen M. Sachs, IUPUI Laurence Armand French, Legislating Indian Country: Legislating Significant Milestones in Transforming Tribalism (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2007, 192 pp. for $29.95 paper), is a fine short history of government policy toward American Indians from the colonial period to the present, showing the general impact of policy on Native peoples and people, with respect for Native perspectives. As a short history of an extremely complex topic, that even very long histories can not cover fully, the book necessarily leaves out aspects of the themes it develops, in the course of giving a very good short overview of policy development, with important excerpts from policy documents and some good description, with examples, of policy impact. For example, in discussing John Collier’s efforts in the Indian New Deal, French gives a good outline of the Collier initiatives, providing helpful excerpts from legislation and other documents. The discussion in Chapter 4 quotes Collier’s regret that many of the Indian programs he got through were not fully funded, but – for lack of space – does not go into the other limitations and limiting factors on the Indian New Deal. Among these is the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) (and the similar Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936 and the Alaska Reorganization Act of 1936, not mentioned) governments set up by many tribes, which are roughly described, along with some of the positive results of their establishment, which French, partially, but not fully, shows were largely imposed on many tribes. But he does not develop the problems that have resulted for many Native Nations that have adopted them. Similarly, French discusses the importance of Indian preference for Indian development, but does not discuss the limitations on this for changing the attitude and approach of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It should be noted, that many longer, and or more specialized histories of Indian policy do not do so on either issue, either. Moreover, while there are necessarily limitations as to how much can be put into a short volume, French’s prior research has enabled him to bring in important matters not covered by many longer or more focused works. I found a number of useful pieces of information that I used, and cited French for, in revising a book on American Indian renewal.
MEDIA NOTESJennifer Clapp and Peter Dauvergne, Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment is 336 pp. for $25 paper, $62 cloth, plus $4 for the first item, $1 for each additional, from Mit Press, c/o Triliterak LLC, 100 Maple Ridge Dr., Cumberland RI 02864 (800)405-1619. University of Arizona Press listings include: Lois Bearsslee, The Woman's Warrior Society (160 pp. for $18.95 paper, $29.95 cloth); Deborah L. Nichols and Patricia L. Crown, Social Violence in the Prehistoric Southwest (416 pp. for &60 cloth); and Justine M. Shaw, White Roads of the Yucatan: Changing Social Landscapes of the Yucatec Maya (224 pp. for $45 cloth), all from the University of Arizona Press, 355 S. Euclid Ave., Suite 103, Tucson, AZ 85701, phone/fax (800) 426-3797, www.upress.arizona.edu. Offerings from the University of Hawaii Press include: Paul D'Arcy, The People of the Sea: Environment, Identity and History in Oceana (328 pp. for $25); Kathy E. Ferguson, Gender and Globalization in Asia and the Pacific: Method, Practice, Theory (408 pp. for $35 cloth, $69 cloth); Johan A. Lindquist, The Anxieties of Mobility: Migration and Tourism in the Indonesian Borderlands (216 pp. for $22 paper, $55 cloth); Danny Keenan, Terror in Our Midst: Searching for Terrorism in Aotearoa New Zealand 2007 (340 pp. for $30) and Michael J. Montesono and Patrick Jory, Eds., Thai South and Malay North: Ethnic Interactions on a Plural Peninsula (440 pp. for $28), All, plus $5 first item, $1 each additional, shipping, from University of Hawai'i Press, 1840 Kolawalu St., Honolulu, HI 96822 (808)956-8255, uhpbooks@hawaii.edu. Recent offerings from the University of New Mexico Press include: Robert L. Conley, A Cherokee Encyclopedia (290 pp. for $24.95 cloth) and David Lewis, Jr. and Ann T. Jacobs, Creek Medicine Ways (224 pp. for $19.95 paper), all plus $5 for the first item and $1 for each additional, shipping, from the University of New Mexico Press, MSC04 2820, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM 87131-0001 (505)272-7777 or (800)249-7737, http://www.unmpress.com/. Offerings from Utah State University Press include: Forrest S. Cuch, Ed., A History of Utah's American Indians; Kenneth R. Philp, Ed., Indian Self-Rule: First-Hand Accounts of Indian-White Relations from Roosevelt to Reagan; Robert S. McPherson, Ed., The Journey of Navajo Oshley An Autobiography and Life History; Larry Evers and Barre Toelken, Eds., Native American Oral Traditions Collaboration and Interpretation; Robert S. McPherson, The Northern Navajo Frontier, 1860-1900 Expansion through Adversity; E. Richard Hart, Pedro Pino Governor of Zuni Pueblo,1830-1878; Scott R. Christensen, Sagwitch Shoshone Chieftain, Mormon Elder, 1822-1887; Dale Morgan, Shoshonean Peoples and the Overland Trail Frontiers of the Utah Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1849- 1869; Matthew E. Kreitzer, ED., The Washakie Letters of Willie Ottogary Northwestern Shoshone Journalist and Leader, 1906-1929, all from: http://www.usu.edu/usupress/native_american/. University of Nebraska Press offerings include: Michael E. Harkin and David Rich Lewis, Eds., Native Americans and the Environment: Perspectives on the Ecological Indian (370 pp. for $24.95 paper,); Rebecca Kugel and Lucy Ederslveld Murphy, Eds., Native Women's History in Eastern North America Before 1900 (503 pp. for $29.95 paper, $60 cloth); Margaret Holmes Williamson, Powhatan Lords of Life and Death: Command and Consent in Seventeenth Century Virginia (344 pp. for $19.95 paper); Karl Marcus Kreis, Ed., Lakotas, Black Robes and Holy Women (338 pp. for $55 cloth); Richmond F. Brown, Costal Encounters: The Transformation of the Gulf South in the Eighteenth Century (328 pp. for $24.95 paper):; Gerald A. Reid, Kahbawa:ke: Factionalism, Traditionalism and Nationalism in a Mohawk Community (235 pp. for $24.95); Harriet S. Caswell, Our Life among the Iroquois Indians (358 pp. for $24.95 paper); Larry Cebula, Plateau Indians and the Quest for Spiritual Power: 1700-1850 (195 pp. for $19.95 paper); Cora DuBois, The 1870 Ghost Dance (368 pp. for $19.95 paper); Paul Kelton, Epidemics and Enslavement: Biological Catastrophe in the Native South East, 1492-1725 (314 pp. for $50 cloth); Clare V. McKenna, Jr., The Trial of Indian Joe: Race and Justice in the Nineteenth Century West (159 pp. for $19.95 paper); R. Warren Metcalf, Termination's Legacy: The Discarded Indians of Utah (311 pp. for $24.95 paper); Bruce Granville Miller, Invisible Indigenous: The Politics of Nonrecognition (248 pp. for $24.95 paper); Deborah A. Rosen, American Indians and State Law: Sovereignty Race and Citizenship ( 369 pp. for $55 cloth); Robert L. Bigart, Ed., Pretty Village: Documents of Worship and Culture Change, St. Ignatius Mission, Montana, 1880-1889 (382 pp, for $49.95 cloth); Robert L. Bigart, Ed., Zealous of all Virtues: Documents of Worship and Culture Change, St. Ignatius Mission, Montana, 1890-1894 (324 pp. for $19.95 paper); Michael C. Coleman, American Indians, The Irish and Government Schooling: A Comparative Study (382 pp. for $49.95 cloth); Jaqueline Fear-Segal, White Man's Club: Schools, Race, and the Struggle of Indian Acculturation (422 pp. for $55 cloth); Margaret Connell Szasz, Indian Education in the American Colonies: 1607-1783 (360 pp. paper for $24.95); David W. Dinwoodie, Reserve Memories: The Power of the Pasty in a Chilcotin Community (120 pp. for $19.95 paper); Jeffery Anderson, Four Hills of Life: Northern Arapahoe Knowledge and Life Movement (376 pp. for $29.95 paper); Jeffery Anderson, One Hundred Years of Old Man Sage: An Arapaho Life (140 pp. for $19.95 paper); and Michael E. Harkin, Reassessing Revitalization Movements: Perspectives from North America and the Pacific Islands (342 pp. for $29,95 paper ), all, plus $5 for first item, $1 for each additional, from University of Nebraska Press, 1111 Lincoln Mall, Lincoln, NE 68588 (800)755-1105, pressmail@uni.edu, www.nebraskapress.unl.edu. Laurence Armand French and Peter Lang, Legislating Indian Country: Significant Milestones in Transforming Tribalism is 208 pp. for $29.95 paper, from Peter Lang Publishing, 29 Broadway, New York, NY 10006, (800)770-LANG, www.peterlang.com. Daniel McCool, Susan M. Olson, and Jennifer L. Robinson, Native Vote: American Indians, the Voting Rights Act, and the Right to Vote ($24.99 Paper) from Cambridge University Press, http://www.cambridge.org/us/. Kevin Bruyneel, The Third Space of Sovereignty: The Postcolonial Politics of U.S.–Indigenous Relations, is $22.50 paper, $67.50 cloth, from University of Minnesota Press, http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/B/bruyneel_third.html Daniel N. Paul, First Nations History: We Were Not the Savages, Third Edition, is a history of the near demise, caused by the European invasion of the Americas, of ancient democratic North American First Nations; with special focus on the Mi'kmaq, from a Mi'kmaq perspective, published by Fernwood Publishing, available from Independent Publishers Group, Chicago, IL (800)888-4741, frontdesk@ipgbook.com. For Canadian or European distributors, as well as links to the table of contents and excerpts. go to: http://www.danielnpaul.com/index.html. Donna Loring, 'In the Shadow of the Eagle: A Tribal Representative in Maine is 224 pp. for $20 paper from Tilbury House. Sarah Deer, Bonnie Clairmont, Carrie A. Martell and Maureen L. White Eagle, Eds., Sharing Our Stories of Survival: Native Women Surviving Violence is 383 pp. for $29.85 paper, $85 cloth, cloth from Alta Mira Press, at: http://www.altamirapress.com. Waziyatawin Angela Wilson, Michael Yellow Bird, and Angela Cavender Wilson, Eds., For Indigenous Eyes Only: A Decolonization Handbook is published by School of American Research Press. Roger C.A. Maake and Chris Anderson, The Indigenous Experience: Global Perspective, is available from Canada Scholars Press, 180 Bloom St.,, W., Suite 821m Toronto, Canada M5S 2U6. Martin Reinhardt, American Indian Inclusion Manual, was created as a guide for both Indian and non-Indian educators seeking to include the Native American perspective in subjects across the curriculum. Free copies can be downloaded at: http://www.edoptions.com/indianed/. For more information contact Jeff Sawner (877)635-0434, jsawner@edoptions.com. Karen J. Atkinson of Tribal Strategies Inc. and Kathleen M. Nilles of Holland & Knight LLP, Tribal Business Structure Handbook is published by the BIA. American Indian Issues: An Introductory and Curricular Guide for Educators was made possible by the American Indian Civics Project (AICP), initially funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Native American Higher Education Initiative. Copies can be downloaded at: http://sorrel.humboldt.edu/~go1/kellogg/PDFarchive.html. The Circle, carrying Native American news and perspectives is published monthly by The Circle Corporation, and can be accessed at: http://www.thecirclenews.org/index.html/. The Asian Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Network produces occasional papers and reports, including occasional country assessments of Indigenous conditions, at: http://www.aitpn.org/Issues/II-08-07.htm. Indigenous Rights Quarterly can be accessed at: http://www.aitpn.org/irq.htm. First Nations Films are available on subjects from Spirituality to Land Claims, to Traditional Music to Politics from First Nations films, (604)990-9337, coyote00@telus.net, www.firstnationsfilms.com. Chiapas Media Project (CMP)/Promedios is celebrating its 10th anniversary and seeks university, cultural and community-based sponsors to host screenings for Fall 2008. The tour will feature videos produced by indigenous video makers from the states of Chiapas and Guerrero, Mexico, including CMP's newest production: Paying the Price: Migrant Workers in the Toxic Fields of Sinaloa, part of a cross border educational campaign to bring attention to the effects of Mexican agribusiness on indigenous workers, the environment and ultimately the US consumers. For further information, please call us at e-mail us at: cmp@chiapasmediaproject.org.
Useful Web Sites The Indigenous News Network list, put out by Andre Cramblit, is an E-mail communication tool, first and foremost, to disseminate information about critical issues and action requests, highlighting important people, traditions, and events in the lives of Native people. The list also occasionally makes readers think, reflect, smile and even laugh out loud. It regularly provides helpful information for this journal. To subscribe E-mail: IndigenousNewsNetwork@topica.com or andre.p.cramblit.86@alum.dartmouth.org. This list has been very helpful in compiling issues of IPJ. Native Research Network is at: http://www.aaip.com/nrnet/nrn.html. Its vision statement is: "A leadership community of American Indian, Alaska Native, Kanaka Maoli, and Canadian Aboriginal persons promoting integrity and excellence in research". Its mission is "To provide a pro-active network of American Indian, Alaska Native, Kanaka Maoli, and Canadian Aboriginal persons to promote and advocate for high quality research that is collaborative, supportive and builds capacity, and to promote an environment for research that operates on the principles of integrity, respect, trust, ethics, cooperation and open communication in multidisciplinary fields". The Native Research Network (NRN) provides networking and mentoring opportunities, a forum to share research expertise, sponsorship of research events, assistance to communities and tribes, and enhanced research communication. The NRN places a special emphasis on ensuring that research with Indigenous people is conducted in a culturally sensitive and respectful manner. Its Member List serve: NRN@lists.apa.org. The National Indian Housing Council offers a number of reports at: http://www.naihc.indian.com/. The American Indian Studies Consortium is at: http://www.cic.uiuc.edu/programs/AmericanIndianStudiesConsortium/. Some news sources that have been useful in putting the issues of Indigenous Policy together are: Indian Country Today: http://www.indiancountry.com/index.cfm?key=15. News from Indian Country: http://www.indiancountrynews.com/. The Navajo Times: http://www.navajotimes.com/. IndianZ.com: http://www.indianz.com Survival International: http://www.survival-international.org/. Cultural Survival: http://209.200.101.189/publications/win/, or http://www.cs.org/. Censored (in Indian Country): http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/. ArizonaNativeNet is a virtual university outreach and distance learning telecommunications center devoted to the higher educational needs of Native Nations in Arizona, the United States and the world through the utilization of the worldwide web and the knowledge-based and technical resources and expertise of the University of Arizona, providing resources for Native Nations nation-building, at: www.arizonanativenet.com The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development offers a number of reports and its “Honoring Indian Nations” at: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/hpaied/res_main.htm. Native Earthworks Preservation, an organization committed to preserving American Indian sacred sites, is at: http://nativeearthworkspreservation.org/. Indianz.Com has posted Version 2.0 of the Federal Recognition Database, an online version of the Acknowledgment Decision Compilation (ADC), a record of documents that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has on file for dozens of groups that have made it through the federal recognition process. The ADC contains over 750 MB of documents -- up from over 600MB in version 1.2 -- that were scanned in and cataloged by the agency's Office of Federal Acknowledgment. The new version includes has additional documents and is easier to use. It is available at: http://www.indianz.com/adc20/adc20.html. Tribal Link has an online blog at: http://triballinknewsonline.blogspot.com. The National Indian Education Association: http://www.niea.org/. The Northern California Indian Development Council has a web-based archive of traditional images and sounds at: http://www.ncidc.org/. Resource
sites in the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA):
National Indian Child Welfare
http://www.calindian.org/legalcenter_icwa.htm, http://www.narf.org/nill/resources/indianchildwelfare.htm, http://www.tribal-institute.org/lists/icwa.htm, http://www.nicwa.org/library/library.htm, http://www.nationalcasa.org/JudgesPage/Newsletter-4-04.htm, http://www.dlncoalition.org/dln_issues/2003_icwaresolution.htm, http://tinyurl.com/6mkywg http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?i104:I04296:i104HUGHES.html, http://nccrest.edreform.net/resource/13704, http://www.naicja.org,
American Indian Graduate Center: http://www.aigcs.org. The Minneapolis American Indian Center's Native Path To Wellness Project of the Golden Eagle Program has developed a publication, Intergenerational Activities from a Native American Perspective that has been accepted by Penn State for their Intergenerational Web site: http://intergenerational.cas.psu.edu/Global.html. The Indigenous
Nations and Peoples Law, Legal Scholarship Journal
has recently been created on line by the Social Science Research
Network, with sponsorship by the The National Council Of Urban Indian Health is at: http://www.ncuih.org/. A web site dedicated to tribal finance, www.tribalfinance.org. Lessons In Tribal Sovereignty, at: http://sorrel.humboldt.edu/~go1/kellogg/intro.html, features Welcome to American Indian Issues: An Introductory and Curricular Guide for Educators. The contents were made possible by the American Indian Civics Project (AICP), a project initially funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Native American Higher Education Initiative, The primary goal of the AICP is to provide educators with the tools to educate secondary students - Indian and non-native alike - about the historical and contemporary political, economic, and social characteristics of sovereign tribal nations throughout the United States. The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) has a blog as part of its Celilo Legacy project, serving as a clearinghouse for public discourse, information, events, activities, and memorials. The blog is accessible by going to www.critfc.org and clicking on the "Celilo Legacy blog" image, or by simply enteringwww.critfc.org/celilo. A listing of the different Alaska Native groups' values and other traditional information is on the Alaska Native Knowledge website at: www.ankn.uaf.edu. Red Nation Web Television: www.rednation.com. A list of indigenous Language Conferences is kept at the Teaching Indigenous Languages web site at Northern Arizona University: http://www2.nau.edu/jar/Conf.html. The Council of Elders, the governing authority of the Government Katalla-Chilkat Tlingit (provisional government): Kaliakh Nation (Region XVII) has initiated a web site in order to expose crimes against humanity committed upon the original inhabitants of Alaska, at: http://www.katalla-chilkat-tlingit.com/. An interactive website, www.cherokee.org/allotment, focuses on the Allotment Era in Cherokee History during the period from 1887 to 1934, when Congress divided American Indian reservation lands into privately owned parcels that could be (and widely were) sold to non Indians, threatening tribal existence. The Blue Lake Rancheria of California launched a web site, Fall 2007, featuring the nation's history, philosophy, economic enterprise, community involvement, and other topics, with many-links. One purpose of the site is to make tribal operations transparent. It is at: www.bluelakerancheria-nsn.gov. The newsletter Message Stick highlighting the activities of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) and its Secretariat 05 is available at: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/news/quarterlynewsle_home1.htm. Indigenous Rights Quarterly can be accessed at: http://www.aitpn.org/irq.htm. A link on Latin American Indigenous Peoples: http://tinyurl.com/fn3by The Asian Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Network produces occasional papers and reports at: http://www.aitpn.org/Issues/II-08-07.htm.
|
XX |
