Reading American Indian Law
Foundational Principles

The study of American Indian law and policy usually focuses on federal statutes and court decisions, with these sources forming the basis for most textbooks. Virtually ignored is the robust and growing body of scholarly literature analyzing and contextualizing these primary sources. Reading American Indian Law is designed to fill that void. Organized into four parts, this book presents 16 of the most impactful law review articles written during the last three decades. Collectively, these articles explore the core concepts underlying the field: the range of voices including those of tribal governments and tribal courts, the role property has played in federal Indian law, and the misunderstandings between both people and sovereigns that have shaped changes in the law. Structured with flexibility in mind, this book may be used in a wide variety of classroom settings including law schools, tribal colleges, and both graduate and undergraduate programs.

Editor and contributor biographies; Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I. Core Concepts: 1. Marshalling past and present: colonization, constitutionalism, and interpretation in federal Indian law, 107 Harvard Law Review 381 (1993) Philip P. Frickey; 2. The algebra of federal Indian law: the hard trail of decolonizing and Americanizing the white man's jurisprudence, 1986 Wisconsin Law Review 219 (1986) Robert A. Williams, Jr; 3. Red: racism and the American Indian, 56 UCLA Law Review 591 (2009) Bethany R. Berger; 4. (Tribal) sovereignty and illiberalism, 95 California Law Review 799 (2007) Angela R. Riley; Part II. Voices: 5. 'Life comes from it': Navajo justice concepts, 24 New Mexico Law Review 175 (1994) Robert Yazzie; 6. Tribal court praxis: one year in the life of twenty Indian tribal courts, 22 American Indian Law Review 285 (1998) Nell Jessup Newton; 7. Beyond Indian law: the Rehnquist Court's pursuit of states' rights, color-blind justice and mainstream values, 86 Minnesota Law Review 267 (2001) David H. Getches; 8. A narrative of sovereignty: illuminating the paradox of the domestic dependent nation, 83 Oregon Law Review 1109 (2005) Sarah Krakoff; Part III. Property: 9. Sovereignty and property, 86 Northwestern University Law Review 1 (1991) Joseph William Singer; 10. The legacy of allotment, 27 Arizona State Law Journal 1 (1995) Judith V. Royster; 11. A common law for our age of colonialism: the judicial divestiture of Indian tribal authority over nonmembers, 109 Yale Law Journal 1 (1999) Philip P. Frickey; 12. In defense of property, 118 Yale Law Journal 1022 (2009) Kristen A. Carpenter, Sonia K. Katyal and Angela R. Riley; Part IV. (Mis)Understandings: 13. Dependent sovereigns: Indian tribes, states, and the federal courts, 56 University of Chicago Law Review 671 (1989) Judith Resnik; 14. There is no federal Supremacy Clause for Indian Tribes, 34 Arizona State Law Journal 113 (2002) Robert N. Clinton; 15. American Indians, crime, and the law, 104 Michigan Law Review 709 (2006) Kevin K. Washburn; 16. Factbound and splitless: the Certiorari process as barrier to justice for Indian tribes, 51 Arizona Law Review 933 (2009) Matthew L. M. Fletcher.

Grant Christensen is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota, an Affiliated Professor of American Indian Studies, and an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. He is the author of American Indians: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (2017).
Melissa L. Tatum is Research Professor of Law at the University of Arizona. She has served on the Southwest Intertribal Court of Appeals and has edited multiple volumes of tribal court opinions including for the Navajo Nation and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She is the author of Indigenous Justice: New Tools, Approaches, and Spaces (2018), Law, Culture & Environment (2014), and Structuring Sovereignty: Constitutions and Native Nations (2014).