Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and Manifest Destiny by Robert J. Miller

Abstract

drove tribes towar, for example, war must also have diverted tribal attention from resource procurement, thereby reducing pressure on bison. He argues for"ecology two," writing on "ecological politics," but fails tomention that the 1877Black Hills Agreement ended Lakota off-reservationhunts and opened thenorthern killing fields towhites. JohnDorst opens Part 3, "Representations of Indians andAnimals," by comparing Krech's work to theDraper Museum bison exhibit. Both avoid critical inquiry concerning tribal bison relations. Sebastian F. Baum reviews recent literature on twenty-first-century bison commons despite contemporary tribal bison projects' focus on environmental politics, which are counter tomany tribalgoals. InPart 4, "Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)," Michael Harkin explores Northwest Coast salmon fishing.He concludes thattribal relations to fish included ecologies one and two,but not threebecause of feastand famine patterns based on fish availability. Examining Tlingit salmon fishing, Stephen J.Langdon discovered that only ecology one is present, since there isno tribal conservation ethic.The Tlingit's consideration of salmon tobe other than-human persons who require reciprocity and giftsreveals the extentof tribal-fishsocial relationships. "Contemporary Resource Management Issues" concludes thebook. LarryNesper and JamesH. Schlender describe theGreat Lakes Indian Fish andWildlife Commission as a scientificand legal entity,therebydebunking stereotypes of tribesmen living in harmony with the landor destroying the land's resources. David Rich Lewis evaluates sovereignty's role in the SkullValley Goshutes' decision to store nuclear waste, pointing to difficultchoices all societiesmake in regard to landscapes. Krech concludes the anthology by level inghard criticism at Feit for selectivelyusing sources,but he supports Flores's argument that tribesmen contributed to the bison's demise, although Flores fails to explain how theydid so. Having not evaluated Flores's research, Krech isguiltyof the same errorhe attributes to Feit; Krech relied on Flores's work to draft his bison chapter. Neither Krech nor Flores answers the question of whether tribesmen over-killed or over-harvested. The differences between these two environmental behaviors are vast. Darren J.Raneo, Robert L. Kelly, Mary M. Prasciunas, Ernest S. Burch, Jr., John Dorst, Sebastian F. Braun, Stephen J. Lang don, and Harkin make strong critiques of The Ecological Indian, providing thoughtful essays that take readers beyond Krech by explaining the relationships between tribal people, their cultures, and their landscapes. To do so, they refuse tomake western conservation, ecology, environmentalism, and over kill their straw men; instead, they evaluate tribal landscape relationships from within. LarryNesper, James H. Schlender, and Lewis examine similarities between cultures and their environmental relationships. Contemporary Chippewa have tribalwildlife and fisheriesplans and theGos hute, like every culture,make daily conscious and rational decisions to use or change their environment.All ofus have social transactions with our landscape, and that truthforcesus to find a common formatforcreating meaningful discussions of relations between tribalpeople, culture, and landscape, and in that light the editors have succeeded. Richmond Clow University of Montana, Missoula NATIVE AMERICA, DISCOVEREDAND CONQUERED: THOMAS JEFFERSON, LEWIS AND CLARK, ANDMANIFEST DESTINY by Robert J. Miller Praeger Publishers, Westport, Connecticut, 2006. Notes, bibliography, index. 240 pages. $49.95 cloth. Robert J. Miller describes how United States policy makers deftlyused a precept of inter 500 OHQ vol. 108, no. 3 national law? the doctrine of discovery ? to subjugate Native Americans and seize theirland.According to Miller's definition, the doctrine of discovery held that "when Euro pean, Christian nations discovered new lands, the discovering country automatically gained sovereign and property rights in the lands of non-Christian, non-European peoples" (p. 8). This isa very narrow summary of amuch broader definition, composed of ten distinct elements that Miller employs in this work. The doctrine of discovery originated when the medieval Catholic Church sought to justify thedispossession of non-Christians. Western European powers thenused theprinciple, as it was developed and revised by church lawyers and legal philosophers, to determine prior ityamong competing territorialclaims. One signally important principle of the doctrine held that the discovering "Christian" nation assumed sovereigntyover newly found terri toryand acquired an exclusive "right of pre emption" topurchase fromNative residentsthe rightof possession ? the only titleacknowl edged to indigenous peoples by imperialist legal scholars. After theAmerican Revolutionary War, the nascent United States claimed itwas the Join OHS for the 40th Holiday Cheer and Authors' Party Sunday, December 2,12...