Review: Defend the Sacred: Native American Religious Freedom Beyond the First Amendment, by Michael D. McNally

Abstract

Book Review| May 01 2023 Review: Defend the Sacred: Native American Religious Freedom Beyond the First Amendment, by Michael D. McNally Defend the Sacred: Native American Religious Freedom Beyond the First Amendment. By Michael D. McNally. Princeton University Press, 2020. 400 pages. $115.00 hardcover; $27.95 softcover; ebook available. Tarryl Janik Tarryl Janik University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Nova Religio (2023) 26 (4): 130–132. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.26.4.130 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Tarryl Janik; Review: Defend the Sacred: Native American Religious Freedom Beyond the First Amendment, by Michael D. McNally. Nova Religio 1 May 2023; 26 (4): 130–132. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.26.4.130 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentNova Religio Search This important book engages the ongoing struggle of Native Americans to protect the sacred, their land, and treaty rights. Michael McNally recognizes how the term religion as a western category has failed Native Americans through law by not fully interpreting the complexities of Indigenous religions. Nevertheless, he argues that even though religion is a problematic term, it remains useful, especially if “imagined capaciously as an Indigenous collective right keyed to the collective nation-to-nation relationship [that] can carry the legal teeth of religious freedom” (xv). What McNally proposes in his latest book on American Indigenous religions is an integrative approach wherein Native American religious claims connect with elements of federal Indian law, while Indigenous rights operate within international human rights law. He argues that not only does the language of religion still have value for Native American religious claims in law, but that sovereignty, religion, and peoplehood should be seen as... You do not currently have access to this content.