For over a century, federal law has split Native American land holdings into tiny pieces. A settlement unites some of the splinters, but at a steep cost.
Indigenous Affairs
Posted inArticles
Five lessons for Indian Country from the Canadian elections
A record 54 indigenous candidates ran in this election, but still occupy just three percent of the House of Commons.
Posted inArticles
Congress should appoint delegates to represent tribal nations
Why indigenous voices are needed to make U.S. a better democracy.
Posted inArticles
Demographic shifts and the Native voting block
In 1980, 20 percent of the U.S. population was minority; today, 37 percent is.
Posted inArticles
Tribal sovereignty remains Alaska’s unfinished business
Do Alaska Native tribes posses sovereignty?
Posted inArticles
Four reasons why Keystone is a goner
Climate change? Treaty rights? Sure, but the real killer is The Market.
Posted inArticles
Making sure every Native voter has the opportunity to cast a ballot
Less than a week to go until Election Day. Its one thing to make the case that every American Indian and Alaska Native should vote. Its another to make certain that the door to the voting booth is actually open and there is a ballot ready to go. Across the country thats the challenge. One […]
Posted inArticles
Keys to South Dakota Senate race: Tribal votes and Keystone XL
Is the die already cast for the upcoming election?
Posted inFebruary 18, 2013: Farming on the Fringe
Economy, distrust complicate allocation of tribal settlement money
When the Obama administration announced in April that it would pay 41 tribes some $1 billion to settle a lawsuit over federal mismanagement of trust funds, many saw it as a sort of stimulus package for Indian Country — a chance to invest in long-term development and infrastructure, such as schools, clinics and roads. “The […]
Posted inFebruary 4, 2013: Making Good on the Badlands
Will the Badlands become the first tribal national park?
Oglala Lakota leaders hope to transform their bombed-out Badlands and help lift the tribe out of poverty, but it won’t be easy.
Posted inApril 16, 2012: The Other Bakken Boom
The Other Bakken Boom: America’s biggest oil rush brings tribal conflict
Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, a lilting swath of prairie in western North Dakota, was once a quiet place. Though thrice the area of Los Angeles, it had only 5,000 residents. Even New Town, a more populous district east of a reservoir called Lake Sakakawea, looked sparse and ephemeral. There was a granary, a fire station, […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2011: High Tension
Regaining identity through restoration
Charles Wilkinson’s new book describes how a tribe “terminated” by the federal government fought to regain its identity.
Posted inGoat
Crow Tribe to vote on water compact
Federal settlement could fund reservation infrastructure improvements.
Posted inBlog
Cobell, settled at last
Federal government finally accounts for money mismanagement of tribal nations.
Posted inNovember 8, 2010: Dr. No
The dark side of Indian law
In his new book, In the Courts of the Conqueror, Walter Echo-Hawk discusses the 10 worst Indian law cases ever decided.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2010: 'The environment ... is where we live'
How the West was really won
Savages & Scoundrels: The Untold Story of America’s Road to Empire through Indian TerritoryPaul VanDevelder 352 pages, hardcover: $26.Yale University Press, 2009. Paul VanDevelder, author of Coyote Warrior, digs deeper into the rotten core of the American experience in his new book, Savages & Scoundrels: The Untold Story of America’s Road to Empire through Indian […]
Posted inArticles
Court decision leaves tribes dangling
Critics say the Supreme Court continues to give justification to gut treaties and rob tribes of their land.
Posted inJuly 20, 2009: Thinking Outside the Timber Box
Cultural blight
Plant disease threatens traditions of California tribes.
Posted inMarch 2, 2009: How low will it go?
Security vs. sovereignty
Border requirements trample on the rights of Indian nations.
Posted inSeptember 9, 2008: Reclaiming the low country
Cheewa James: Chronicler of the ‘Tribe That Wouldn’t Die’
Modoc: The Tribe That Wouldn’t DieCheewa James352 pages, softcover: $19.95.Naturegraph, 2008. With song and prayer, soil and prairie grass, Native American author Cheewa James recently honored the memory of her long-lost great-great uncle. Frank Modoc left his Oklahoma reservation for a Quaker seminary over 120 years ago, fell victim to tuberculosis and never returned. While […]