Tribes, Treaties, and Constitutional Tribulations
Prominent American Indian activist Deloria, a Standing Rock Sioux, joins with Wilkins (American Indian studies and political science, Univ. of Minnesota) to deliver a shocking indictment of American constitutional law as it regards American Indians. In tracing Euro-American relations with Indians from the "discovery" of the New World to the present day, the authors demonstrate that legal and political definitions of Indian sovereignty and rights have been, and still are, incoherent and inconsiderate. As a result, the brief mentions of Indians in the U.S. Constitution have not been adequately defined in legal or moral terms, and no one has considered how current Indian nations fit into the American constitutional framework. The authors' structured discussion works well. But while theirs is a much-needed historical work, it misses being a thorough legal analysis of the many U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have stripped away even the slimmest constitutional guarantees. A very readable popular work that is perhaps not best suited for legal research.-Steven Anderson, Gordon Feinblatt Rothman Hoffberger & Hollander, Towson, MDCopyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.