Tribal Homelands Research Articles

Baptism Between Empires: A Coast Miwok Family in the Pacific World

Scholarship has documented in detail how Spanish colonists forced California Indians to convert to Catholicism, but some Indigenous converts managed to avoid confinement in the mission system, particularly those who resided in the borderlands between Spanish and Russian settlements. This contribution to the roundtable considers the travels of one Coast Miwok family who avoided confinement and preserved local control over tribal homelands by assiduously cultivating links with Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches while holding colonial newcomers at arm's length.

Making a Difference: My Fight for Native Rights and Social Justice by Ada Deer

Reviewed by: Making a Difference: My Fight for Native Rights and Social Justice by Ada Deer Allyson Stevenson Making a Difference: My Fight for Native Rights and Social Justice. By Ada Deer, with Theda Perdue. Foreword by Charles Wilkinson. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019. ix + 189 pp. Illustrations, index. $26.95 cloth. Scholars interested in the twentieth-century history of Native American political activism will find the autobiography of Ada Deer essential reading. Making a Difference covers a critical period in the modern struggle for tribal sovereignty. Ada Deer, a Menominee woman, played a valuable role in restoring her community's lands and tribal sovereignty after termination, as well as in protecting tribal interests at the national level. As she narrates her life, reflects on her familial and tribal influences while evaluating her legacy, Deer presents readers with the opportunity to witness the exceptional contribution of a highly educated and dynamic Menominee activist. I happened to read Making a Difference immediately after completing Brenda Child's Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community (2013). Despite the differences in approach, and tribal affiliation, both books contribute to a growing field that increasingly centers Indigenous women's unacknowledged roles in preserving communities, culture, and families. Whether as exceptional individuals as in the case of Deer, or as mothers, grandmothers, and cultural knowledge holders, Native American women have sustained and continue to sustain connections to lands, languages, and bodies of knowledge that have undergone continued assault from colonial times onward. Growing up in poverty on the beautiful Menominee reservation, but nevertheless provided a deep sense of social justice from her non-Native American mother, Ada Deer's pursuit of Native rights stems from her commitment to Native American sovereignty promised in the treaties with the United States government. Assisted by historian Theda Perdue, Ada Deer's autobiography spans the period from her birth in 1935 and early years on the Menominee reservation in Wisconsin, through her successful role in advocating for restoration of the Menominee's lands and tribal status, and concludes with her time in Washington, DC, as assistant secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs during the Clinton administration. Throughout the book, we are privy to Ada's reflections and we witness her driving ambition to see Native American tribes, systems of governance, and economies be restored through a relationship to the government based on recognition of Native American sovereignty and self-determination. For readers, it would be helpful to have appendices that include the treaty documents that enshrine the Menominee rights. In addition, as much of her politization stems from the Menominee termination, the book would also benefit from having both the termination acts and restoration acts likewise included for those [End Page 265] interested. Finally, in situating the Menominee people in their tribal homelands, maps to accompany this work would provide the reader with the geographical context that provides much of the specificity of the Menominee tribe's homeland. Allyson Stevenson Department of Indigenous Studies University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon Copyright © 2023 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Why We Serve: Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces by Alexandra N. Harris and Mark G. Hirsch

Reviewed by: Why We Serve: Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces by Alexandra N. Harris and Mark G. Hirsch Joseph G. Hiller (bio) Why We Serve: Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces by Alexandra N. Harris and Mark G. Hirsch National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, 2020 THIS COLLECTION-QUALITY BOOK broadly pursues a somewhat familiar question. There is no short or simple answer, however, to such an apparently simple inquiry. This rich book explains why the question is asked and relates in detail the many varied answers. Well-chosen illustrations and photographs, along with an attention-grabbing book cover, help make this book a sought-after collector's item. Since the question cannot be directly answered by our long-gone ancestors, the authors carefully describe the historical involvement of Natives in warfare. Several historical vignettes present captivating stories revealing comprehensive data and narratives that in a circumstantial way begin to answer the "why" question. When the "why" was asked of contemporary veterans and their families, however, a pattern of responses began to emerge. Why We Serve justifies the original reason for the question and continues to provide numerous authentic, thoughtful, and elegant answers laid out by testimony, stories, illustrations, and historical notes. Several themes align along a timeline that organizes this book. The first theme asks the question and establishes context. In view of both the historical and the contemporary relationship between Natives and the United States, how can Natives possibly sign up and support the federal sovereign in times of war? The question is perplexing and cumbersome to many; but the book reveals why it is not such a dichotomy to be Native and to serve in the military. The second theme explores warfare in a Native context—the reasons it occurs and how/why alliances between tribes were beneficial—albeit often temporary—for family and tribal homelands protection. Next comes the relationship with Europeans and the nuances they brought as third parties to existing alliances. In many cases members or clans of the same tribe aligned themselves with opposing European forces. Finally, major conflicts involving the U.S. dating from the early Indian Wars to the current Global War on Terrorism are one-by-one briefly addressed and accompanied by anecdotes, notable quotes, and illustrations addressing the central [End Page 145] "why" question. Stories are carefully told—by veterans, including Native Hawai'ian, Alaska Native, and American Indian—of the Native experience and singular sacrifice of service members, their families, and communities. Today with an all-volunteer military force, we find a mix of contemporary, traditional, and familial reasons to serve, ranging from the practical (the G.I. Bill, salary and benefits, job training, adventure and respect) to the more personal and tribal notions of doing greater good by serving society honorably and being from "a family that served" (157). Whatever the reason, Native military service is made known and honored in this book. Why We Serve is unique; it brings together in one place an authoritative, well-researched text that tells the collective story of Natives in military service to the United States. It presents an impressive collection of artwork and photographs and is footnoted extensively for further reference and reading. The book cover is perfectly eye-catching for this topic. Why We Serve is well worth the read and serves as an excellent reference on the topics of Natives and military service. [End Page 146] Joseph G. Hiller JOSEPH G. HILLER, Ph.D. (Oglala), LTC(R) U.S. Army Special Forces, is professor emeritus at the University of Arizona. Copyright © 2022 Regents of the University of Minnesota

American Indian Reservations and COVID-19: Correlates of Early Infection Rates in the Pandemic.

Objective:To determine the household and community characteristics most closely associated with variation in COVID-19 incidence on American Indian reservations in the lower 48 states.Design:Multivariate analysis with population weights.Setting:Two hundred eighty-seven American Indian Reservations and tribal homelands (in Oklahoma) and, as of April 10, 2020, 861 COVID-19 cases on these reservation lands.Main Outcome Measures:The relationship between rate per 1000 individuals of publicly reported COVID-19 cases at the tribal reservation and/or community level and average household characteristics from the 2018 5-Year American Community Survey records.Results:By April 10, 2020, in regression analysis, COVID-19 cases were more likely by the proportion of homes lacking indoor plumbing (10.83, P = .001) and were less likely according to the percentage of reservation households that were English-only (−2.43, P = .03). Household overcrowding measures were not statistically significant in this analysis (−6.40, P = .326).Conclusions:Failure to account for the lack of complete indoor plumbing and access to potable water in a pandemic may be an important determinant of the increased incidence of COVID-19 cases. Access to relevant information that is communicated in the language spoken by many reservation residents may play a key role in the spread of COVID-19 in some tribal communities. Household overcrowding does not appear to be associated with COVID-19 infections in our data at the current time. Previous studies have identified household plumbing and overcrowding, and language, as potential pandemic and disease infection risk factors. These risk factors persist. Funding investments in tribal public health and household infrastructure, as delineated in treaties and other agreements, are necessary to protect American Indian communities.

Witnessing Oka Apesvchi / Protecting the Water

Witnessing Oka Apesvchi / Protecting the Water1 Bethany Hughes (bio) Oceti Sakowin Land In 2016, water protectors joined together near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota to protest the installation of an oil pipeline on tribal homelands. The Sioux, known in their own language as Oceti Sakowin, led what became an international protest movement combining Native American rights and environmental activism. #NoDAPL and "Water Is Life" became hashtags and rallying cries for Indigenous-led protests against resource extraction, environmental racism, and disregard for Indigenous sovereignty. A historic gathering of tribes, nations, and peoples, the water protectors at Standing Rock awakened the United States to ongoing maltreatment and injustice within Native American communities and on Native American lands. Successful in bringing together a multitude of supporters but ultimately unable to stop the laying of underground pipe carrying crude oil from the Bakkan/Three Forks area to its destination in Illinois, these protectors created a movement. Art, performance, music, and story shaped the movement and the ways in which larger non-Native and non-activist communities encountered the #NoDAPL cause. Folksinger Raye Zaragoza (multiracial, Pima) contributed to the protest movement through her song, "In the River." Reminiscent of folk protest songs from the twentieth century, Zaragoza forwards an Indigenous understanding of kinship relations among people and water. She calls on her listeners to recognize their relations in the water itself, singing "[i]n the river are our sisters and our brothers." She calls out the violent suppression of water protectors and pleads for humanity to not "poison our future away." Video: https://youtu.be/I4eosRdP5gQ (courtesy of Raye Zaragoza) [End Page E-1] Three months after the release of her protest song, Zaragoza again performed "In the River" while at the water protector camps near Standing Rock. The Facebook live stream of her acoustic performance in –20°F weather calls again to listeners to locate the stakes of protecting water and the specific location under threat. Filmed with the camp as backdrop, the distance between the live-stream viewer and her live performance reminds viewers of their own distance from Standing Rock, even as it challenges them to take up the cause of their relative, the water. We are separated from Zaragoza by distance and time. However, we are all still in relation to the water that sustains us and requires our care. The multiple flags blowing in the wind behind her live performance remind viewers of the multinational and multi-tribal nature of this fight. At least 280 separate Indigenous tribes supported the water protectors, displaying their flags at the camps as markers of solidarity and scale. The protection of water is not simply a Standing Rock Sioux issue, but a human issue, and it requires us, as Zaragoza's live stream invites us to remember, to come together and care for both our present and future. Video: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1374329889304383 (courtesy of Raye Zaragoza) Inuit and Innu Land Only a month after Zaragoza posted her music video on YouTube, farther north and east another Indigenous nation protested the poisoning of their water relative. Inuit and Innu governments in Labrador, Canada, objected to Nalcor Energy, a Crown (government-owned) corporation, building a hydroelectric dam in their territory. Nalcor did not plan to clear the land to be flooded of vegetation and other organic materials. As the organic material decayed in the flooded land, it would create methylmercury, a central-nervous-system toxin, which would negatively impact the water quality of communities downstream of the dam. Methylmercury is a neurotoxin that impairs enzymes, cell-membrane functions, motor functions, vision, and has fatal effects on the brain development of fetuses.2 It accrues as it moves up the food chain, causing larger animals like humans increased exposure and damage. As the Indigenous governments worked with scientists from Harvard to create an environmental-impact study that adequately addressed the downstream impact of the dam's creation, protestors actively shut down the dam's construction site. Thirteen-year-old Allyson Gear joined these protestors at a blockade in October 2016 and performed a drum dance. Captured on video and later in a prize-winning photograph by Ossie Michelin, the...

Making democracy safe for tribal homelands? Self-determination and political regionalism in Weimar Germany

ABSTRACTThis article adds to the literature on political regionalism in the Weimar Republic at the end of the First World War. After four years of hardship at the hands of the central government, proponents of reform were prepared to countenance the dismemberment of Prussia – Germany’s largest state – in favour of autonomous tribal (stammlich) entities under the federal umbrella of the Reich. However, contemporaries soon learned that instead of acting as a catalyst of emancipation, the Wilsonian discourse of self-determination frustrated genuine change because the latter’s appropriation by ethno-regionalists threatened to unravel many of the viable compromises reached in the imperial period. The resulting inability to keep all parties engaged in dialogue generated verbal as well as physical aggression. The article suggests that these phenomena shed revealing light not only on the way in which ideas of space and the ‘othering’ of fellow Germans based on tribal allegiance shaped political conflict but also challenge more broadly the assumption prevalent in some parts of the historiography that when ethnic movements make demands for their own state, they automatically turn nationalist. Empirical evidence from the province of Hanover shows that regionalists could well make violent demands for secession from Prussia while at the same time affirming their identification with the German nation.

Native Hostelries in New Zealand's Colonial Cities

Historians have argued that while Māori were important players in founding and sustaining New Zealand’s colonial cities, the rapid growth of the settler population saw them excluded from city space and return to tribal homelands. This article examines the marginalisation process and how the perceived threat of Māori economic power and changes in European racial theory informed it. It then argues that marginalisation was only ever partial, with Māori continuing to engage with city life in innovative ways. In doing so they not only claimed city spaces but contributed to the production of new spaces as well.
 

Rethinking American Indian and Non‐Indian Relations in the United States and Exploring Tribal Sovereignty: Perspectives from Indian Country and from Inside the Bureau of Indian Affairs

AbstractThis article uses materials from field research conducted at the level of tribal homelands and at the federal level of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to rethink and reconceptualize Indian–non‐Indian relations and federal–Indian relations in the United States. I document the ways Chickasaw and Choctaw tribal officials are moving beyond the “deadliest enemies” model of Indian–non‐Indian relations in tribal homelands in their pursuit of strategies that expand the role of tribal governments, mobilize support from local non‐Indians for American Indian tribal empowerment and resurgence, and institutionalize a reordered regional political hierarchy. Cultural constructions of tribal sovereignty undergird these strategies and the transformations that are unfolding in the territories of the American Indian tribe in which I am enrolled and its neighbor tribe. Turning to a second site of participant‐observation field research, I document the ways a different but related construction of tribal sovereignty drives the work of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, an agency whose workforce is more than 95 percent American Indian. Federal–Indian relations are shown to take shape through systematic responses to bureaucratic imperatives, the circulation of legal and popular constructions of Indian identity, and the resistance to segregation of the categories of “federal” and “Indian” in federal–Indian affairs.

“Our Hope and Our Protection”: <em>Misko-biiwaabik</em> (Copper) and Tribal Sovereignty in Michigan

"Our Hope and Our Protection"Misko-biiwaabik (Copper) and Tribal Sovereignty in Michigan Erik M. Redix (bio) In 2000 the Smithsonian denied the request of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula to repatriate a three-thousand-pound copper boulder that was removed from the shores of Upper Michigan's Ontonagon River in 1843. The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) consists of two historic bands of the Lake Superior Ojibwe: the L'Anse and Ontonagon bands. KBIC argued that the boulder was a sacred object utilized for purification by practitioners of Ojibwe Midewiwin prior to beginning ceremonies. The Smithsonian ruled that KBIC failed to provide evidence that the boulder was a sacred object as defined by the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) as it was not utilized directly in ceremonies.1 NAGPRA was passed primarily to return human remains to Native communities. It is important to remember that the legislation only applies to publicly funded institutions. Despite this, the legislation has been relatively effective in the repatriation of human remains. However, the burden of proof for repatriation lies with tribes, not the institution housing the object. This has resulted in contestations over what constitutes "sacred" objects under NAGPRA, which defines them as "specific ceremonial objects which are needed by traditional Native American religious leaders for the practice of traditional Native American religions by their present-dayadherents."2 If the federal government was truly committed to decolonization and tribal sovereignty, the burden would fall on the federal government to prove why it should keep objects when a tribe petitioned for repatriation; the tribe would then review the federal request. The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and other tribes are sovereign nations and should be vested [End Page 224] with the right to determine what should be returned to them. Linguistic evidence demonstrates that the Ojibwe viewed the Ontonagon boulder as a living being, which bolsters both the moral and specific legislative reasons why it should be returned. However, the Ontonagon boulder is not just an object in a discussion of tribal sovereignty. Many sources suggest that Ojibwe leaders saw the boulder as a source of their sovereignty. In the nineteenth century, leaders of the Ontonagon band consistently articulated to American officials that they saw copper as an important aspect of their sovereignty, calling it "our hope and our protection." From its removal from Michigan in 1843 to the denial of the Smithsonian to repatriate it in 2000, the Ontonagon boulder tells an important story of how the Ojibwe experienced colonialism. Removal was central to American colonialism. It was not just people who were removed, but objects and resources were also separated from tribal homelands. During the time of the removal of the boulder, Ontonagon band leaders knew that what threatened Ojibwe sovereignty most was American desire for copper, not land. Most Ojibwe people were not directly evicted from their lands by white settlement during the era of treaty making. Instead, American desire to exploit Ojibwe resources such as copper posed the greatest threat to Ojibwe sovereignty during this time. While there was not widespread white settlement in Ojibwe territory in the decades following land cession treaties, the resources exploited in the region were critical for American expansion across the continent. Historian David R. Wrone argues: They provided several of the essential ingredients for the industrial transformation of late nineteenth century and early twentieth century America. The ores of the Mesabi enabled the steel mills of Pittsburgh to flourish, the copper of the Keewnanh [sic] poured into wires made the telephone system possible. Power sites created paper mills, part of the industrial glory of Wisconsin. The lakes and fish offered a recreational paradise.3 Exploration of Upper Michigan's copper preceded and fueled American attempts to extend control over the lands of the Lake Superior Ojibwe. In the decades immediately following the Civil War, three-fourths of all copper produced in the United States came from Upper Michigan during an era when the United States produced half the world's copper. It all started with the removal of the Ontonagon boulder. [End Page 225] the ontonagon band and copper The Ontonagon band was one of the...

The Five Civilized Tribess Treaty Rights to Water Quality and Mechanisms of Enforcement

This thesis focuses on the treaty rights to water quality of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole tribes (collectively referred to as the “Five Civilized Tribes”). Although each tribe is an independent, sovereign nation, the tribes share a collective history as the largest and most dominant tribes in what is now the southeastern United States and the eventual forced removal from their respective ancestral homelands to lands in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in the 1830s. The legal mechanism for accomplishing this forced relocation was “removal treaties” between the United States and each of the five tribal governments, which the United States pursued under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Although these treaties had tragic consequences, the United States made promises and vested legal rights (in the new homelands) in exchange for these tribes vacating their ancestral homelands. This thesis will examine whether the property rights in their new tribal homelands in Indian Territory include enforceable rights to water quality.

Biagaweit: Securing Water from the Mighty River in the Snake River Basin Adjudication

This symposium article describes the Shoshone and Bannock peoples’ journey to quantify their water rights in the SRBA. It begins with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribal cultural perspective on water and water rights. It then discusses the concept of tribal homelands and the water required and necessary for sustaining a tribally reserved home as guaranteed in the Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868, including a discussion of the Winters doctrine which affirms the treaty’s promises. It concludes with a review of the Fort Hall Indian Water Rights Agreement.“Biagaweit” is the Shoshone word for the Snake River. The mighty Snake River begins its journey in the Shoshone and Bannock Tribal peoples’ aboriginal area (Yellowstone Park area in Wyoming), flows through the original homelands of the Bannocks and many Shoshone bands who lived on the Biagaweit.

New Zealand Maori: The Quest for Indigenous Autonomy

The indigenous Maori of New Zealand, like their counterparts in other jurisdictions, express a holistic inseparability from the land: they are tangata whenua, ‘people of the land’. But most of their land had been lost to the colonisers by 1900, and only a small proportion of it has been returned through reparational negotiations between tribes and governments over the last 25 years. These negotiations have mostly now been concluded, and thus there is no prospect of the return of significant land areas in the foreseeable future. Moreover, these areas have been transferred to tribes as land, unaccompanied by constitutional concessions in such areas as governance, law and policing; and in any case, most Maori now live in urban areas, far from their tribal homelands. From the Maori perspective, however, the negotiations have been overarched by a quest to restore that which was promised in the nation's foundational Treaty of Waitangi in 1840—their rangatiratanga, loosely translatable as autonomy. The article examines the prospects for self-determination within contexts of tribal landlessness and mass urbanisation. It explores ways in which tribal leaderships are in the process of forging forms of autonomy which, while non-territorial, are meaningful to the tangata whenua precisely because of indigenous understandings of the concepts of tangata, whenua and rangatiratanga.

Planning the American Indian reservation: from theory to empowerment

American Indian reservation planning is one of the most challenging and poorly understood specializations within the American planning profession. Charged with developing a strategy to protect irreplaceable tribal homelands that have been repeatedly diminished over the ages through unjust public policy actions, it is also one of the most imperative. For centuries tribes have faced historical bigotry, political violence, and an unrelenting resistance to self-governance. Aided by a comprehensive reservation planning strategy, tribes can create the community they envisioned for themselves, independent of outside forces. In Planning the American Indian Reservation , Zaferatos presents a holistic and practical approach to explaining the practice of Native American planning. The book unveils the complex conditions that tribes face by examining the historic, political, legal, and theoretical dimensions of the tribal planning situation in order to elucidate the context within which reservation planning occurs. Drawing on more than thirty years of professional practice, Zaferatos presents several case studies demonstrating how effective tribal planning can alter the nature of the political landscape and help to rebalance the uneven relationships that have been formed between tribal governments and their nontribal political counterparts. Tribal planning's overarching objective is to assist tribes as they transition from passive objects of historical circumstances to principle actors in shaping their future reservation communities.

Commentary: Leading a fulfilled life as an indigenous academic

Indigenous women who pursue advanced degrees in higher education often find their careers there as well. If they land a position as an academic, they face numerous opportunities and challenges. These range from serving as the single face of diversity within their academic homes to trying to balance responsibilities to their tribal communities while constructing a life as a researcher and educator. Still, it is possible to return to indigenous ways of living life to find an ultimate balance, a cycle that can logically follow Cajete's (1994) action cycle of being, asking, seeking, making, having, sharing, and celebrating. This commentary introduces my life story as an American Indian academic educated and employed away from my tribal homeland and involved in creating a network of indigenous colleagues from around the world. My life lessons are both satisfying and challenging, leading to personal fulfillment tied to service and teaching.

The people are dancing again: the history of the Siletz tribe of western Oregon

The history of the Siletz is in many ways the history of all Indian tribes in America: a story of heartache, perseverance, survival, and revival. It began in a resource-rich homeland thousands of years ago and today finds a vibrant, modern community with a deeply held commitment to tradition. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians-twenty-seven tribes speaking at least ten languages-were brought together on the Oregon Coast through treaties with the federal government in 1853-55. For decades after, the Siletz people lost many traditional customs, saw their languages almost wiped out, and experienced poverty, killing diseases, and humiliation. Again and again, the federal government took great chunks of the magnificent, timber-rich tribal homeland, a reservation of 1.1 million acres reaching a full 100 miles north to south on the Oregon Coast. By 1956, the tribe had been terminated under the Western Oregon Indian Termination Act, selling off the remaining land, cutting off federal health and education benefits, and denying tribal status. Poverty worsened, and the sense of cultural loss deepened. The Siletz people refused to give in. In 1977, after years of work and appeals to Congress, they became the second tribe in the nation to have its federal status, its treaty rights, and its sovereignty restored. Hand-in-glove with this federal recognition of the tribe has come a recovery of some land--several hundred acres near Siletz and 9,000 acres of forest--and a profound cultural revival. This remarkable account, written by one of the nation's most respected experts in tribal law and history, is rich in Indian voices and grounded in extensive research that includes oral tradition and personal interviews. It is a book that not only provides a deep and beautifully written account of the history of the Siletz, but reaches beyond region and tribe to tell a story that will inform the way all of us think about the past. Watch the book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/user/UWashingtonPress#p/u/1/NEtAIGxp6pc

Wiindigoo Sovereignty and Native Transmotion in Gerald Vizenor's <em>Bearheart</em>

In the study of American Indian literatures, the rise of criticism focused on literary nationalism, with its emphasis on tribal-specific approaches to literary study, the sovereignty of Native nations, and claims to tribal homelands, would seem to herald the displacement of Gerald Vizenor’s work from a central position in the American Indian literary canon. Indeed, Vizenor has been criticized for failing to address or for actively subverting in his creative work and criticism these issues of primary concern to literary nationalists. Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, one of the earliest and most ardent proponents for a nationalist perspective in American Indian Studies, identifies Vizenor as “a major voice” in what she calls “mixedblood discourse,” characterized by “an aesthetic that is pathetic or cynical, a tacit notion of the failure of tribal governments as Native institutions and of sovereignty as a concept, and an Indian identity which focuses on individualism rather than First Nation ideology” (“American Indian Intellectualism” 124–25). Sean Kicummah Teuton, arguing for a tribal realist approach to identity formation and knowledge production, sees Vizenor writing from the zone of the trickster in his poststructural criticism, which seems to reject any normative claims to American Indian identity, history, and land: “[D]isconnected from a distinct culture and land, it ultimately cannot support a coherent Native identity, nor protect actual Native territories.” Moreover, Teuton claims that Vizenor’s “ahistorical trickster fiction,” such as his novel Bearheart, “provides little guidance on how to construct one’s own Native selfhood,” and instead

The Company They Keep

Page 18 American Book Review The Company They Keep Jeanetta Calhoun Mish of constructing an anthology for use as a textbook in a course on Native literature or as one of several texts in a women’s literature course by choosing “depth over breadth,” including several stories by each of the fifteen writers, and by severing stories from novels so the instructor could squeeze them into an undergraduate course which could not possibly discharge Almanac of the Dead (1992) during a single semester. The weaknesses of the anthology are directly related to the compromises necessary to achieve the form of an undergraduate textbook. Several of the stories are frustratingly truncated and do not accurately represent their author’s storytelling abilities. The informational and definitional footnotes to the stories are vaguely irritating and repetitious. Also, if a regular reader of NativeAmerican literature opens this collection hoping for new stories from his or her favorite authors, he or she will be disappointed; with the exception of one story each by Paula Gunn Allen, Kimberly M. Blaeser, and Patricia Riley, all the works by established Native women writers are reprints or excerpts. The anthology does present previously unpublished stories by three emerging writers: Misha Nogha, Beth H. Piatote, and Reid Gómez. The most intriguing aspect of Reckonings is its meta-storytelling— most of the stories are stories about the power of stories. Despite the problems associated with its function as a textbook, the compelling and powerful stories in the collection make it worth reading and rereading . Paula GunnAllen’s previously unpublished story, “Burned Alive in the Blues,” is wryly magical and poignant. It captures the West Coast urban Indian experience in the 60s, and will surely find a home in collections of 60s stories and music tales. Beth E. Brant’s contributions, “Turtle Gal” and “Swimming Upstream,” and Patricia Riley’s rural character study, “Damping Down the Road,” reveal the difficulty of contemporary Native life, the torn and ragged fabric of almost-forgotten cultural traditions, and the possibilities inherent in the conscious reconstruction of family, tribe, and tradition. Janet Campbell Hale is not as well known as other Native women writers of her generation such as Linda Hogan, Joy Harjo, and Leslie Marmon Silko—all of whom who also contributed to this volume—but Hale’s “Claire,” an emotionally satisfying and pitch perfect story of a wise grandmother who escapes from the confines of an “old people’s home” then finds her way back to her tribal homeland, will surely gain for the writer a renewed and expanded appreciation of her talents.Anita Endrezze contributes two entertaining, contemporary re-fashionings of tribal myths, and Kimberly M. Blaeser’s entry, “Growing Things,” would make an enchanting film treatment for a NativeAmerican romantic comedy . Anna Lee Walters muses on the importance of names in “Buffalo Wallow Woman” and “Las Vegas, New Mexico, July 1969” and the vulnerability of raced, gendered poverty in “Apparitions .” Linda Hogan’s “Descent” is a quietly transfixing and ultimately righteous story of a girl’s kinship to a panther. As most readers would expect, the stories by Joy Harjo, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Louise Erdrich are brilliantly conceived and masterfully wrought. However, the pieces by Silko and Erdrich suffer somewhat from the loss of their original context, but perhaps readers who have not encountered the authors’novels would not be aware of the diminution. Of the established writers’stories, only Diane Glancy’s selections fail to stand up to the company they keep; they are neither as fierce nor as mesmerizing as other stories in the collection. The three emerging authors, Gómez, Nogha, and Piatote, are fine writers. Nogha’s two stories display postmodern traits; they resist narrative, relying on imagery and inference to effect the experience of living in two oftentimes antagonistic worlds. Gómez’s terrific linked tales of Native women resisting Western psychiatric medicine’s mistreatment of cultural and spiritual sickness stay with the reader long after the book is closed, and Piatote’s “Life-Size Indian” honestly calculates the alienating effects of exoticism on Native Americans. In the end, the outstanding writing overcomes the irritations of the anthology’s weaknesses. For a seasoned reader of...

Saving Maine for the Indian: The Legacy of Joseph Nicolar’s <i>The Life and Traditions of the Red Man</i>

I read book once again. This time it struck me how Indian way of life and culture is built largely on legends and passed down from one generation to next--and how my grandfather tried to communicate this in written form. I see it as a preservation of what he knew, what he'd heard and learned directly. Concerned that old storytellers were dying off and that new generations would be swept up in assimilation, he gathered up their stories and put them in book form so that those who came later might learn and understand. --Charles Norman Shay (x-xi) In an audacious and unprecedented move on 26 October 2007, 188th Convention of Episcopal Diocese of Maine passed a resolution calling for Archbishop of Canterbury, titular head of worldwide Anglican Communion, and Queen Elizabeth II, Supreme Governor of Church of England, to disavow and rescind 1496 royal charter granted to John Cabot and his sons. (1) Originally issued by England's King Henry VII in March 1496, that charter established legal foundation for England's version of infamous Doctrine of Discovery. (2) Under charter, Cabot, his sons, and their heirs were authorized to conquer, occupy and possess any and all peoples and lands before this time were to all Christians. If unknown to all Christians, these peoples and lands were considered as yet undiscovered. (3) Thus, according to charter, islands, countries, regions or provinces of heathens and infidels, in whatsoever part of world placed, could now be claimed by Cabots for the dominion, title and jurisdiction of English crown (First 9). Of course, by 1496, large parts of Asia, Africa, and Middle East were already well known to Christian Europe and, following upon Christopher Columbus's voyages, Europe was now beginning to explore westward across Atlantic. In effect, therefore, charter issued to Cabots had its greatest impact in North America and, more specifically, in those territories supposedly yet undiscovered by Christian world and now legally available to be claimed for England by Cabot and all subsequent explorers sailing for British crown. proponents of 2007 resolution in Maine had no illusion that they were in any way reversing consequences of long and ugly history that unfolded from 1496 charter's Doctrine of Discovery. Nonetheless, they hoped at least to force their church into a public acknowledgment of a in which both church and crown had been complicit. As one member of October 2007 Convention put it, We who enjoy so much privilege owe it to those whose privilege was taken away to call a a wrong (188th). A few days after passage of resolution, John Dieffenbacher-Krall, a member of Diocese's Committee on Indian Relations, group that originally sponsored resolution, explained in Bangor Daily News: My objective is universal recognition that doctrine [of discovery] is repugnant. In his view, The doctrine ... should not be used to justify taking of and other rights from indigenous people (Harrison B1). Needless to say, Doctrine of Discovery had been used to justify England's claims to traditional tribal homelands in Maine only real property that Europeans understood indians to possess--and nothing in resolution passed by 2007 annual Convention of Episcopal Diocese of Maine does anything to alter this fact of dispossession. But return of land to Indians is not what motivated those who sponsored resolution. With 1980 settlement of Maine Indian Land Claims lawsuit, that dispossession had already been at least partially redressed. First filed on 17 July 1972 by Penobscot Nation and Passamaquoddy Tribe (and later joined by another federally recognized Maine tribe, Houlton Band of Maliseets), suit generally argued that federal government and State of Maine had broken or ignored long-standing treaty agreements to protect in perpetuity large swaths of tribal lands. …

Resistance and Continuance through Cultural Connections in Simon J. Ortiz's Out There Somewhere

from their tribal homelands speaks to those who are urban natives, which is over two-thirds of the native population in the United States: those natives who have left the reservation for economic rea sons; those native tribes who have no land base; those natives who have no federal recognition as official native tribes; and those natives who for reasons of patrilineal or matrilineal descent have no tribal affiliation. Although they are out there somewhere, they continue to be native, as Ortiz so deftly demonstrates. A political thread runs through Ortiz's earlier poetry collections, and this essay looks at a few of the poems in Out There Somewhere to see how this literature of resistance continues through cultural connections. In the preface to Out There Somewhere Ortiz writes, Yet at the same time that we are away, we also continue to be absolutely con

Science and Environmental Education in Tribal Homelands

“For American Indian people, and for most indigenous people worldwide, the view of a healthy environment encompasses and supports our vibrant and ancient indigenous spirituality and culture.” Lori Lambert, PhD, enrolled Abenaki, Winds of Change Magazine, Summer 2001.