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[Introduction To] Documents Of Native American Political Development: 1933 To Present, David E. Wilkins (Editor)

Bookshelf

Before Europeans arrived in what is now known as the United States, over 600 diverse Native nations lived on the same land. This encroachment and subsequent settlement by Americans forcibly disrupted the lives of all indigenous peoples and brought about staggering depopulation, loss of land, and cultural, religious, and economic changes. These developments also wrought profound changes in indigenous politics and longstanding governing institutions. David E. Wilkins' two-volume work Documents of Native American Political Development traces how indigenous peoples have maintained and continued to exercise a significant measure of self-determination contrary to presumptions that such powers had been lost, surrendered, …

[Introduction To] Dismembered: Native Disenrollment And The Battle For Human Rights, David E. Wilkins, Shelly Hulse Wilkins

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While the number of federally recognized Native nations in the United States are increasing, the population figures for existing tribal nations are declining. This depopulation is not being perpetrated by the federal government, but by Native governments that are banishing, denying, or disenrolling Native citizens at an unprecedented rate. Since the 1990s, tribal belonging has become more of a privilege than a sacred right. Political and legal dismemberment has become a national phenomenon with nearly eighty Native nations, in at least twenty states, terminating the rights of indigenous citizens.

The first comprehensive examination of the origins and significance of tribal …

A Tribute To Vine Deloria, Jr.: An Indigenous Visionary, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

A Standing Rock Lakota citizen, Deloria was arguably the most intellectually gifted and articulate spokesman for Indigenous nationhood in the twentieth century. He was never quite comfortable with the notion that he was, in fact, the principal champion of tribal nations and their citizens, since he expected that each Native nation and every tribal citizen express confidence in their own distinctive identities, develop their own unique talents, and wield their collective and individual sovereignty in a way that enriched not only their own nations but all those around them as well.

For Deloria, freedom and justice could only be achieved …

Tribes Paying Outsiders To Audit Their Membership, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

There is no greater responsibility for a tribal leader than to be a steward of their nation’s citizens/members. Yet in the area of constitutional reform and development, tribal membership, and enrollment policies and practices, many tribal governments have entrusted these most intimate of governmental responsibilities to outside organizations like CSN, Inc. (Constructing Stronger Nations)-DCIAmerica, the Harvard Project for American Indian Economic Development/Native Nations Institute, Automated Election Services, the Falmouth Institute, J. Dalton Institute, and others. In the case of membership, some of these for-profit organizations conduct, what I would suggest, are privacy invading enrollment audits.

[Chapter 1 From] Hollow Justice: A History Of Indigenous Claims In The United States, David E. Wilkins

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This book, the first of its kind, comprehensively explores Native American claims against the United States government over the past two centuries. Despite the federal government's multiple attempts to redress indigenous claims, a close examination reveals that even when compensatory programs were instituted, native peoples never attained a genuine sense of justice. David E. Wilkins addresses the important question of what one nation owes another when the balance of rights, resources, and responsibilities have been negotiated through treaties. How does the United States assure that guarantees made to tribal nations, whether through a century old treaty or a modern day …

A Most Grievous Display Of Behavior: Self-Decimation In Indian Country, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Vine Deloria, Jr., the greatest indigenous philosopher of his day, wrote Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto in 1969. It was a spirited polemic that both galvanized and inspired Native peoples at home and abroad. Simultaneously, the book's powerful and trenchant words sent shock waves through non-Indian society. Deloria articulated a resurgent indigenous-centered understanding of sovereignty that had largely been suppressed by federal policy and law for nearly a century. Why did he emphasize the word "sovereignty"? Because he knew that Native nations needed to employ such concepts since they were familiar to both federal and state …

Depopulation In Indian Country, 21st Century Style, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

A strange thing is happening in and across Indian country: the number of federally recognized tribal nations continues to increase—the Tejon people of California were readmitted to the ranks in early January of this year, bringing the number of such groups to 566—while the population figures for existing federally recognized native peoples continues to decline because of the ongoing number of disenrollments of tribal members.

A Future Of Equality For Virginia's Tribes: Reform The Federal Recognition Process To Repair Injustice, Katherine A. Womack

Law Student Publications

This article first examines the historical background of the Virginian-American Indian identity after European contact in Part I. This section looks at the early interactions between American Indians and colonial settlers, the treaties that defined American Indian identity, and the first government-to-government relationships between the tribes and colonial powers. It also follows the changing social attitudes toward American Indians. Part II discusses how social attitudes in the early twentieth century about American Indians led to long-reaching legal effects for Virginian-American Indians. Part III details the federal recognition process, and discusses how and why it denies Virginia’s tribes an equal place …

[Introduction To] American Indian Politics And The American Political System, Third Edition, David E. Wilkins, Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark

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Now in its third edition, American Indian Politics is the most comprehensive study written from a political science perspective that analyzes the structures and functions of indigenous governments (including Alaskan Native communities and Hawaiian Natives) and the distinctive legal and political rights these nations exercise internally, while also examining the fascinating intergovernmental relationship that exists between native nations, the states, and the federal government. The third edition contains a number of important modifications. First, it is now co-authored by Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark, who brings a spirited new voice to the study. Second, it contains ample discussion of how President Obama's …

[Introduction To] The Legal Universe: Observations On The Foundations Of American Law, Vine Deloria, Jr., David E. Wilkins

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According to Deloria and Wilkins, "Whenever American minorities have raised voices of protest, they have been admonished to work within the legal system that seek its abolition." This essential work examines the historical evolution of the legal rights of various minority groups and the relationship between these rights and the philosophical intent of the American founders.

[Introduction To] The Hank Adams Reader: An Exemplary Native Activist And The Unleashing Of Indigenous Sovereignty, David E. Wilkins (Editor)

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Vine Deloria once said that Hank Adams was the most important Native American in the country. From his treaty rights work to his mediation of disputes between AIM and the US government in the 1970s, Adams shaped modern Native activism. For the first time, Adams' writings are collected, evidencing his unparalleled role in Indian affairs and beyond.

Measured Sovereignty: The Political Experiences Of Indigenous Peoples As Nations And Individuals, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

On June 18, 2001, in Washington, D.C., Jack Abramoff, a powerful Washington lobbyist, met with Michael Scanlon, a former congressional communications director, to secretly discuss a partnership centered around a firm known as "Capi­tol Carnpaign Strategies" (CCS). Their strategy, later labeled as "Gimme Five," was designed to put in $5 million a year to CCS, revenue that was to be secured from several Indian nations that had grown wealthy through gaming operations. Later, the expression "Gimme Five" was understood as entailing major kickbacks to Abramoff from payments made by any of Scanlon's American Indian clients to Scanlon. By late 2004, …

A Man Of Passion And Vision: George Whitewolf, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

George Whitewolf's home was also just a stone's throw from Washington, D.C, and many Natives from the Lakota, Haudenosaunee, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, and countless other nations would stop at George's place for rest and ceremonies as they prepped for their difficult diplomatic visits to Congress and the BIA to discuss treaty rights, protest events like the Longest Walk, and other politically incendiary topics. In the 1970s, George was also very active in the American Indian Movement and his home was under frequent surveillance by the FBI.

Within a few years, George and his allies had made tremendous progress on both fronts …

The Voice Of Silence, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

What is silence? Is it the mere absence of words or sound? Or is it a sound itself? Simon and Garfunkel in their early 1960s hit, "The Sound of Silence," focused on a meaning that seems to predominate in our society—that silence implies apathy, or a lack of communication. They sang: "Silence like a cancer grows. Hear my words that I might teach you, Take my arms that I might reach you. But my words like silent raindrops fell, and echoed in the wells of silence."

For Native peoples, silence historically was understood as a means to convey often profound …

Federal Policy, Western Movement, And Consequences For Indigenous People: 1790-1920, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

In virtually every respect imaginable—economic, political cultural, sociological, psychological, geographical, and technological—the years from the creation of the United States through the Harding administration brought massive upheaval and transformation for native nations. Everywhere, U.S. Indian law (federal and state)—by which I mean the law that defines and regulates the nation's political and legal relationship to indigenous nations—aided and abetted the upheaval.

Indigenous Self-Determination: A Global Perspective, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The concepts of self-determination and sovereignty, from an Indigenous perspective, embrace values, attitudes, perspectives, and actions. Of course, as a result of the historical phenomenon known as colonialism, in which expansive European states sought to dominate the rights, resources, and lands of aboriginal people worldwide, one cannot discuss Indigenous self-determination and sovereignty without some corresponding discussion of how states and their policy makers understand these politically charged terms as well.

I have been thinking, acting, researching, and writing on these two vital concepts, intergovernmental relations, critical legal theory, and comparative Indigenous politics for nearly two decades. Along with this, I …

[Introduction To] On The Drafting Of Tribal Constitutions, Felix S. Cohen, David E. Wilkins (Editor)

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Felix Cohen (1907-1953) was a leading architect of the Indian New Deal and steadfast champion of American Indian rights. Appointed to the Department of the Interior in 1933, he helped draft the Indian Reorganization Act (1934) and chaired a committee charged with assisting tribes in organizing their governments. His "Basic Memorandum on Drafting of Tribal Constitutions," submitted in November 1934, provided practical guidelines for that effort.

Largely forgotten until Cohen's papers were released more than half a century later, the memorandum now receives the attention it has long deserved. David E. Wilkins presents the entire work, edited and introduced with …

Vine Deloria Jr. And Indigenous Americans, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Vine Deloria Jr., a Standing Rock Sioux citizen, widely considered the leading indigenous intellectual of the past century, walked on in November 2005. Deloria spent most of his adult life in an unrelenting, prodigious, and largely successful effort to provide those most grounded of Native individuals and their governments with the intellectual, theoretical, philosophical, and substantive arguments necessary to support their inherent personal and national sovereignty. Importantly, however, his voluminous work also sought to improve the nation-to-nation and intergovernmental relationships of and between First Nations, and between First Nations and non-Native governments at all levels. In fact, he was hailed …

Forging A Political, Educational, And Cultural Agenda For Indian Country: Common Sense Recommendations Gleaned From Deloria's Prose, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Fortunately for the human species, in its wide assortment of pigmentations, cultural experiences, and geographic locations, each generation of a given people produces a small number of truly spirited individuals. These are individuals who not only possess the ability to constructively critique and analyze what is both sound and problematic in their society—or for our purposes, a set of societies—but who also have the rarer gift of being able to propound suggestions, ideas, and prognostications on what might be done to improve the human condition, both individually and collectively.

In the breadth and depth of Vine Deloria Jr.'s copious works …

Keynote Address: 2004 American Indian Studies Consortium Annual Conference, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This special issue of Wicazo Sa Review continues the theme of colonization/decolonization from the previous issue and contains transcriptions of two sessions of the 2004 American Indian Studies Consortium annual conference, entitled "Who Stole Indian Studies?" at Arizona State University. The articles add to our knowledge by contributing important discussions addressing such issues as empowerment, law, research ethics, Freedmen entitlements, reproductive rights, spiritual appropriation, and identity. The Consortium transcripts provide invaluable presentations by key native scholars about the past, present, and future of American Indian studies. Dr. David Wilkins provided the keynote address for the conference.

Indigenous Voices And American Politics, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

President [Bush], in a convoluted response to a question on the meaning of tribal sovereignty (essentially the inherent right of indigenous nations to self-governance) posed by a minority journalist on August 6, told the 7,500 assembled journalists that "tribal sovereignty means that it's sovereign. You're a—you've been given sovereignty and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities."

Nevertheless, these two statements by the leading presidential candidates are big deals for Indian nations. They provide a measure of overt national political recognition for several of the most …

Justice Thomas And Federal Indian Law: Hitting His Stride?, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

It was Justice [Clarence Thomas], the lone African American, whose voting record on Indian cases is more anti-Indian than even Rehnquist or Scalia, who in his concurring opinion, made several critical points that were most telling. Thomas will never be mistaken for Thurgood Marshall, who wrote several affirmative Indian law rulings, and his intention in crafting his opinion in this case was almost certainly not meant to be transparently supportive of tribal sovereignty. Yet he identified several enigmas in law and policy that, if acted upon by tribal, state and federal policymakers, might lead to a clearer status for indigenous …

Indigenous Nations As Reserved Sovereigns, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Some adhere to the idea that the federal government, as a democratic state founded on the rule of law, contains within its legal and political institutions and ideologies a framework that provides the necessary vaccines that will eventually cure the various and sundry indigenous ailments generated throughout American society by its social, economic, political and legal institutions.

By contrast, there are others who vigorously argue that the prevailing institutions of governance and law of the United States are incapable of providing justice to First Nations because they entail systems, ideologies, and values that represent non-Indians and thus they cannot possibly …

First Nations And States: Contesting Polities, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The U.S. Supreme Court in an historic case in 1886, U.S. v. Kagama, which devastated tribal sovereignty by affirming the legality of the 1885 Major Crimes Act that problematically extended federal criminal jurisdiction over "all" Indians for seven major crimes—murder, manslaughter, rape, etc., (today that number has increased to 14 crimes)—more accurately declared in that same case that state governments could be characterized as the "deadliest enemies" of indigenous nations.

Native State Lawmakers: Minimizing The Tribal Disadvantage, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Not surprisingly, most of these lawmakers are serving in western states where more than 80 percent of indigenous peoples live—Alaska is home to 11 Native lawmakers; Montana has elected seven; New Mexico's legislature now has five Indian legislators; Oklahoma, Arizona, and South Dakota each have three Indian representatives; Washington has two; and Colorado and North Dakota have one each. Eastern states also have indigenous representation: Maine has two representatives—a Penobscot and a Passamaquoddy; North Carolina's Lumbee tribe has a member in the state legislature; and Vermont has a lone Native member.

Our preliminary results give us reason to be moderately …

A Constitutional Confession: The Permanent If Malleable Status Of Indigenous Nations, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

I appreciate the opportunity to address such an august group of students and faculty. When Amy invited me to join you, and she certainly is a very persuasive person, I debated long and hard on what kind of talk to give since I study politics comparatively. Although much of my work is infused with law and history, and a smidgen of culture, economics, and geography, I work largely at the intersection of politics, history and law, and have coined the awkward though accurate term, "Polegalorian," to describe what I do. My research is concerned broadly with how indigenous peoples generate, …

The Indigenous Vote: Protecting Or Endangering Sovereignty?, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Much ado has been made about the 2002 mid-term congressional and gubernatorial elections. Democrats are bemoaning the Republican's treble triumph—congressional control, an invigorated Bush administration, and conservative rule on the supreme court. Republicans are exulting in their perceived conservative mandate—to address the War on Terror, privatize Social Security, and roll back environmental regulations that are deemed overly restrictive of private and public property development. And the inconsistent American voter, depending on race, socio-economic status, and issue salience, seems either unenthusiastic, ambivalent, or wildly animated about politics.

Indigenous Peoples, American Federalism, And The Supreme Court, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

As America breathes a sigh of relief in the afterglow of the pyrotechnics associated with the first post-September 11 July 4, pondering its global status as as the leading agent in its self-­proclaimed "War on Terrorism," and its domestic situation with a "War on Federalism" raging between the Supreme Court's redefined notion of states' rights and federal authority, it seems a propitious time to ask where indigenous nations fit in this warlike atmosphere, given that the history of Indian/U.S. relations involved a fair amount of war-related activities.

Governance Within The Navajo Nation: Have Democratic Traditions Taken Hold?, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This essay crafts a description and analysis of the political and institutional context, structures, and issues of the Navajo Nation's government. We begin with a demographic, institutional, and ideological assessment of the nation as its currently stands, move to a historical overview of the nation from precontact times to the 1989 riots and conclude with a short policy portfolio of three issues—land claims, gaming, and taxation—that will likely impact the shape and direction the nation will head into the twenty-first century.

Clinton's Legacy On Indigenous Issues, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The president, of course, has not express constitutional responsibility for Indian nations—that is a power reserved to the Congress under the commerce clause. Nevertheless, it is to the president, dating back to George Washington, who had an active hand in Indian affairs through the treaty process, that tribal nations and their leaders have most often looked to gauge the federal government's character and commitment to fulfill the nation's historic treaty and ongoing trust obligations to indigenous people.