The story, known as "The Theft of Fire," illustrates numerous meanings and teachings crucial to understanding Anishinaabe nationhood. This story contains two discernible points. First, it reveals how the Anishinaabe obtained fire. The second discernible feature within this story is the marking of the hare by his theft of fire. Stories…

The road of US Indian law and policy, like its companion to hell, is paved with good intentions. Critics of its generally diabolic outcomes have had little difficulty demonstrating the moral chasm between the appealing rhetoric in which a policy or judgment was framed and the oppressive consequences to which it practically conduced. With a nod to…

In this article, the author, who is the long-serving president of Sinte Gleska University, recalls his journey to the presidency and shares his hopes for the future. He stresses that educators nowadays are again challenged to redefine and restructure education at tribal colleges and within their elementary and secondary schools. These institutions…

Twenty-five years ago a "perfect storm" of economic, environmental, and social conditions swirled in northern Wisconsin and battered attempts by the Ojibwe to exercise their treaty-based fishing rights. This article examines the socioeconomic, political, and cultural factors that contributed to the spearfishing crisis twenty-five years…

Since the passage in 1988 of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which recognized the authority of Native American tribal groups to operate gaming facilities free from state and federal oversight and taxation, gambling has emerged as a major industry in Indian Country. Casinos offer poverty-stricken reservation communities confined to meager slices…

American Indian treaties and treaty law may seem to fall solely within the purview of legal methodology and critical analysis, yet the 367 American Indian treaties signed with the US federal government beg for the type of dissection and analysis generally associated with cultural and literary critical theory. The tools by which texts are dissected…

In Leslie Marmon Silko's 1977 novel "Ceremony" the "primacy of the geographical" has often been interpreted as a particularly holistic and healing sense of place--what the critic Robert M. Nelson has characterized as the "spirit of place." This heightened awareness of the spiritual and redemptive power of the natural and the imaginative in…

Itemizes accomplishments of the Council of Energy Resource Tribes and discusses 1980 presidential campaign promises to Indians by Ronald Reagan and John Anderson. (AN)

Concerns long-time conflict among three groups of St. Regis Mohawks (one group accepts federal jurisdiction, one disclaims United States citizenship, and one tries to resolve conflicts of the first two) and the state of New York. (AN)

Explores the founding document of present-day New Zealand, the "Treaty of Waitangi," in terms of the Maori chiefs' signatures and their significance in European and tribal custom. Notes that most of the signatures on the original treaty were approximately 5mm high and were subsumed by the attempted European spellings of the names of the…

Discusses the history, purposes, and provisions of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA); recent high-profile transracial adoption cases; the debate over whether ICWA purposes have been realized; the proposed Adoption Promotion and Stability Act, which would severely limit application of ICWA to adoption cases; and proposed compromise amendments to…

Discusses "serious weaknesses" in a federal task force report on the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (Public Law 95-341). (AN)

Larry Echo Hawk, Idaho attorney general and former state legislator, discusses success factors in college and law school; early experiences as an Indian lawyer; first election campaign; and his views on tribal sovereignty, state-tribal relationship, gambling, and his dual responsibility to the general public and Native American issues. (SV)

Chronicles the feud between Ezekial Proctor and White Sut Beck, two members of the Cherokee nation in the nineteenth century. Shows how the tragic culmination of this disagreement was the result of jurisdictional disputes between the Cherokee Nation and the U.S. government. (AEM)

Clarifies the Navajo Tribal Council's policy on Navajo control of education. Asserts that education of this tribe's children has been disastrous and discusses priorities for strengthening it. Emphasizes the necessary involvement of family, community, and tribal government in structuring Navajo education and determining its goals. (KH)