Law Commons^™

The "De-Selected" Senate Committee On Indian Affairs And Its Legislative Record, 1977-1992, David E. Wilkins

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

This essay has three major sections. In section one, I examine the Congress's constitutional responsibility for administration of the federal government's affairs with tribes. In section two, I describe the history of the various Indian committees from 1820 to 1977. Section three details the legislative record of the Senate Select Committee during its sixteen-year existence (1977-1993) as a "select" entity. Substantive policy content analysis of the committee's legislative activity, which is the next logical step leading to the construction of a theory or theories about congressional committees and their impact on the development of sound federal Indian policy, must await …

Who's In Charge Of U.S. Indian Policy?: Congress And The Supreme Court At Loggerheads Over American Indian Religious Freedom, David E. Wilkins

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

The federal government's three branches—executive, legislative, judicial, and that unwieldy mass known simply as "the bureaucracy" have, during the last half-decade—1987-1991—produced a dizzying crop of laws, policies, proclamations, regulations, and court decisions which have served simultaneously to 1) reaffirm tribal sovereignty; 2) permit and encourage greater state interference within Indian Country; 3) enhance federal legislative authority over tribes; and 4) deny constitutional free-exercise protections both to individual Indians and to tribes.

On the legislative side, Congress has established the experimental Tribal Self-Governance Demonstration Project which is a major step towards restoring the tribal right of self-determination, and is discussing the …