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The Dominant Society's Judicial Reluctance To Allow Tribal Civil Law To Apply To Non-Indians: Reservation Diminishment, Modern Demography And The Indian Civil Rights Act, Robert Laurence

University of Richmond Law Review

Begin at the beginning: there was a time, not so long ago as such things are reckoned-say, about half as long as there has been a country called Hungary-during which only American Indians lived in and around what is now the Commonwealth of Virginia. A time when Europeans, Africans and Asians were entirely occupied with managing the affairs of Europe, Africa and Asia, to mixed effect. A time when the subject of this article was entirely theoretical; when the question of applying tribal law to non-Indians was answered neither "yes" or "no" but simply did not arise, putting aside the …