LibGuides: Celebrating Native American Heritage: Laws, Treaties, and Government Relations

Laws, Treaties, and Government Relations

Documents of Native American Political Development by David E. Wilkins
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780195327397
Publication Date: 2009-02-04
The arrival of European and Euro-American colonizers in the Americas brought not only physical attacks against Native American tribes, but also further attacks against the sovereignty of these Indian nations. Though the violent tales of the Trail of Tears, Black Hawk's War, and the Battle ofLittle Big Horn are taught far and wide, the political structure and development of Native American tribes, and the effect of American domination on Native American sovereignty, have been greatly neglected.This book contains a variety of primary source and other documents--traditional accounts, tribal constitutions, legal codes, business councils, rules and regulations, BIA agents reports, congressional discourse, intertribal compacts--written both by Natives from many different nations and somenon-Natives, that reflect how indigenous peoples continued to exercise a significant measure of self-determination long after it was presumed to have been lost, surrendered, or vanquished. The documents are arranged chronologically, and Wilkins provides brief, introductory essays to each document,placing them within the proper context. Each introduction is followed by a brief list of suggestions for further reading.Covering a fascinating and relatively unknown period in Native American history, from the earliest examples of indigenous political writings to the formal constitutions crafted just before the American intervention of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, this anthology will be an invaluableresource for scholars and students of the political development of indigenous peoples the world over.
Say We Are Nations by Daniel M. Cobb
Call Number: 1st Floor East - Research Center - General Collection ; E 93 S29 2015/ eBook
ISBN: 9781469624815
Publication Date: 2015-09-24
In this wide-ranging and carefully curated anthology, Daniel M. Cobb presents the words of Indigenous people who have shaped Native American rights movements from the late nineteenth century through the present day. Presenting essays, letters, interviews, speeches, government documents, and other testimony, Cobb shows how tribal leaders, intellectuals, and activists deployed a variety of protest methods over more than a century to demand Indigenous sovereignty. As these documents show, Native peoples have adopted a wide range of strategies in this struggle, invoking "American" and global democratic ideas about citizenship, freedom, justice, consent of the governed, representation, and personal and civil liberties while investing them with indigenized meanings. The more than fifty documents gathered here are organized chronologically and thematically for ease in classroom and research use. They address the aspirations of Indigenous nations and individuals within Canada, Hawaii, and Alaska as well as the continental United States, placing their activism in both national and international contexts. The collection's topical breadth, analytical framework, and emphasis on unpublished materials offer students and scholars new sources with which to engage and explore American Indian thought and political action.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND CONSULTATION: THE DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE
This Comment looks at the history of government-to-government relations between Native Americans and the United States. Using the Dakota Access Pipeline as a lens, this Comment proposes a step forward in advancing self-determination among Native Americans. Protecting Native American lands, the environment, and cultural history has been at the forefront of tribal politics. Currently, a consultation process to engage tribes is employed when their lands and resources are impacted. This process includes the affected tribe, but offers no mechanisms for tribes to oppose any substantive decisions that are made by the federal government. The international community’s framework, The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DRIP), takes consultation a step further by requiring Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) before some actions are taken. The United States, while making an effort to support the self-determination of indigenous peoples, has yet to apply a similar standard to government-to-government relations. Noting U.S. progress toward adhering to this international standard, there is still further to go. In order to make the leap between mere consultation and FPIC, steps must be taken in between. This Comment will discuss the pros and cons of including Native Americans in decision making, instead of just having a seat at the table. Giving Native Americans an actual vote in the consultation process would demonstrate the commitment of the federal government to realizing self-determination and self-governance of indigenous peoples.
Un-Erasing American Indians and the Indian Child Welfare Act from Family Law
In 1978, Congress enacted the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) as a remedial measure to correct centuries-old policies that removed Indian children from their families and tribal communities at alarming rates. Since 1978, courts presiding over child custody matters around the country have applied ICWA. Over the last few decades, state legislatures, along with tribal community partners and advocates, have drafted and enacted state ICWA laws that bolster the federal ICWA laws. Despite four decades of ICWA, trends in child welfare demonstrate that Indian children are still vastly overrepresented in the child welfare system. Because tribal communities, advocates, community partnerships, and scholars work tirelessly to both ensure and improve ICWA compliance, ICWA still provides some of the best outcomes for Indian children through both family reunification and/ or placement within their tribal communities. However, family law often minimizes or mischaracterizes what the Act does. While ICWA is a complex law and even an entire semester may not fully provide justice to the breadth of the Act, this characterization of ICWA creates a stigma around the law. Family law scholars and practitioners can no longer overlook ICWA in conversations and teachings. Stigmatizing ICWA in the classroom contributes to the erasure of American Indians from our society at large and from our classrooms. This allows legitimized racism against this community to seep into both the classroom and the practice area. Accordingly, this article discusses how family law classrooms can incorporate ICWA into conversations on family law as a step in eliminating bias against American Indians in the legal academy and in the profession. This article describes some of the history around ICWA, how family law feeds into the erasure of American Indians in the legal field, some misconceptions about ICWA, and how we can tie ICWA and other issues impacting American Indians into our classroom teachings on family law.

National Indian Law Library
The National Indian Law Library (NILL) is a law library devoted to American Indian law. It serves both the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) and the public. NILL serves the public by developing and making accessible a unique and valuable collection of Indian law resources and by providing direct research assistance and delivery of information.
Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations
Treaties—solemn agreements between sovereign nations—lie at the heart of the relationship between Indian Nations and the United States. Native Nations made treaties with one another long before Europeans came to the Western Hemisphere. The United States began making treaties with Native Peoples because they were independent nations. Often broken, sometimes coerced, treaties still define mutual obligations between the United States and Indian Nations.