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Full-Text Articles in Law
Indian Policy And The Imagined Indian Woman, Bethany Berger
Indian Policy And The Imagined Indian Woman, Bethany Berger
Faculty Articles and Papers
In this contribution to the symposium on Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez held by the Tribal Law Center at the University of Kansas, I reflect (with pictures!) on the role of women in federal American Indian policy and tie this history to current debates about the Martinez decision. I argue that the perception by non-Indians that they were riding to the rescue of oppressed and exploited Indian women was always a powerful justification for Indian policy, but that the Indian women whose plight called out for European and American protection were not real women, but were instead imagined by the …
United States V. Lara As A Story Of Native Agency, Bethany Berger
United States V. Lara As A Story Of Native Agency, Bethany Berger
Faculty Articles and Papers
In this contribution to the University of Tulsa's symposium on United States v. Lara (2004), I tell the history of Lara as a story of unified agency by Indian peoples and suggest that it is part of a broader transformation in the relationship of Indian people to Indian law. In United States v. Lara, the Supreme Court affirmed congressional power under the constitution to recognize inherent criminal jurisdiction over non-member Indians, although the Supreme Court had declared there was no such jurisdiction as a matter of federal common law. That the jurisdiction was inherent is significant, because it means that …
"Power Over This Unfortunate Race," Race, Power And Indian Law In U.S. V. Rogers, Bethany Berger
"Power Over This Unfortunate Race," Race, Power And Indian Law In U.S. V. Rogers, Bethany Berger
Faculty Articles and Papers
In 1846, the Supreme Court held in United States v. Rogers that a white man who had become a citizen of the Cherokee Nation through marriage was not an Indian for purposes of federal criminal jurisdiction. This article examines the extensive fabrications of law and fact that underlie the decision, and its part in a campaign by the executive branch to increase federal power over Indian people. The campaign involved the Attorney General of the United States arguing before the Supreme Court for the right to prosecute a man that had died ten months earlier. More profoundly, the campaign was …