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Anticipating De Soto: Allotment Of Indian Reservations And The Dangers Of Land-Titling, Ezra Rosser
Anticipating De Soto: Allotment Of Indian Reservations And The Dangers Of Land-Titling, Ezra Rosser
Ezra Rosser
This chapter uses the disastrous allotment experience of Indian tribes to question the transformative power of land-titling for the poor as advocated by Hernando de Soto. For Indians, allotment era land-titling resulted in loss of land and hardship, all reflective of non-Indian desires for the land and an unwillingness to acknowledge the rights of Indians to govern themselves. The chapter ends with a brief discussion of the champas of El Salvador and the potential loss in terms of housing for the poor if de Soto’s ideas are implemented without some protection against sales to the wealthy.
Customary Law: The Way Things Were, Codified, Ezra Rosser
Customary Law: The Way Things Were, Codified, Ezra Rosser
Ezra Rosser
Frequently referred to as customary law, the unique traditions and customs of different Native American tribes are cited by their tribal courts as authoritative and binding law. The recent use of customary law as a mechanism for deciding individual cases is not uniform among tribal court systems as it differs depending upon which tribe's judges are working to place custom into contemporary judicial analysis. Understanding the present role of customary law in tribal law requires first understanding the nature of customary law and then understanding how it is being used. The effect of customary law is dependent upon the place …
This Land Is My Land, This Land Is Your Land: Markets And Institutions For Economic Development On Native American Reservations, Ezra Rosser
Ezra Rosser
This paper presents the current land regime and nature of economic development found on most Native American reservations, drawing predominantly from the Navajo Nation. It then considers the situation according to (1) neo-classical economics and (2) New Institutional Economics (NIE). The paper begins with the paired assumptions that economic growth can and should reach reservations and that the U.S. and tribal governments can improve upon past performance and institutional arrangements. Policy solutions to reservation commercial and light industrial underdevelopment, corresponding to each economic perspective in turn, are then discussed. The paper broadens the range of policy options available to tribes …