This collection of works many by Native American scholars introduces selected topics in federal Indian law. Readings in American Indian Law covers contemporary issues of identity and tribal recognition; reparations for historic harms; the valuation of land in land claims; the return to tribal owners of human remains, sacred items, and cultural property; tribal governance and issues of gender, democracy informed by cultural awareness, and religious freedom. Courses in federal Indian law are often aimed at understanding rules, not cultural conflicts. This book expands doctrinal discussions into understandings of culture, strategy, history, identity, and hopes for the future. Contributions from law, history, anthropology, ethnohistory, biography, sociology, socio-legal studies, and fiction offer an array of alternative paradigms as strong antidotes to our usual conceptions of federal Indian law. Each selection reveals an aspect of how federal Indian law is made, interpreted, implemented, or experienced. Throughout, the book centers on the ever present and contentious issue of identity. At the point where identity and law intersect lies an important new way to contextualize the legal concerns of Native Americans. Author note: Jo Carrillo is Visiting Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, where she is on leave from the University of California, Hastings College of Law.

Approaches the study of Indian law through the lens of 16 of the most impactful law review articles.

Amid the decline of U.S. military campaigns against Native Americans in the late nineteenth century, assimilation policy arose as the new front in the Indian Wars, with its weapons the deployment of culture and law, and its locus the American Indian home and family. In this groundbreaking interdisciplinary work, Piatote tracks the double movement of literature and law in the contest over the aims of settler-national domestication and the defense of tribal-national culture, political rights, and territory.

""This book is a lively and accessible account of the remarkably complex legal and political situation of American Indian tribes and tribal citizens (who are also U.S. citizens) David E. Wilkins and Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark have provided the g̀o-to' source for a clear yet detailed and sophisticated introduction to tribal soverignty and federal Indian policy. It is a valuable resource both for readers unfamiliar with the subject matter and for readers in Native American studies and related fields, who will appreciate the insightful and original scholarly analysis of the authors."--Thomas Biolsi, University of California at Berkeley" ""American Indian Politics and the American Political System is simply an indispensable compendium of fact and reason on the historical and modern landscape of American Indian law and policy. No teacher or student of American Indian studies, no policymaker in American Indian policy, and no observer of American Indian history and law should do without this book. There is nothing in the field remotely as comprehensive, usable, and balanced as Wilkins and Stark's work."--Matthew L.M. Fletcher, director of the Indigenous Law and Policy Center at Michigan State University College of Law" ""Wilkins has written the first general study of contemporary Indians in the United States from the disciplinary standpoint of political science. His inclusion of legal matters results in sophisticated treatment of many contemporary issues involving Native American governments and the government of the United States and gives readers a good background for understanding other questions. The writing is clear-not a minor matter in such a complex subject--and short case histories are presented, plus links (including websites) to many sources of information."--Choice

Looks at how Supreme Court decisions have defined the role of Indian tribes as permanent governments within the federal constitutional system