Criminal Justice and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
- Canada's Lost GirlsThis emotional, hard-hitting film takes Stacey Dooley to a remote part of Canada to investigate why the regular disappearance or murder of hundreds of young women from indigenous communities has largely been ignored. She discovers that in the last 30 years, an estimated 4,000 women from these First Nation communities have gone missing or been killed. And the vast majority were aged under 30. Why were so many of their killers never brought to justice—and why have incidents like the brutal murders of two 15-year-old girls failed to make the headlines? Stacey uncovers a tale of shocking racism and sexism by police, as well as prejudice from government services.
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Yellow Bird by
The gripping true story of a murder on an Indian reservation, and the unforgettable Arikara woman who becomes obsessed with solving it--an urgent work of literary journalism. "I don't know a more complicated, original protagonist in literature than Lissa Yellow Bird, or a more dogged reporter in American journalism than Sierra Crane Murdoch."--William Finnegan, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Barbarian Days NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY When Lissa Yellow Bird was released from prison in 2009, she found her home, the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, transformed by the Bakken oil boom. In her absence, the landscape had been altered beyond recognition, her tribal government swayed by corporate interests, and her community burdened by a surge in violence and addiction. Three years later, when Lissa learned that a young white oil worker, Kristopher "KC" Clarke, had disappeared from his reservation worksite, she became particularly concerned. No one knew where Clarke had gone, and few people were actively looking for him. Yellow Bird traces Lissa's steps as she obsessively hunts for clues to Clarke's disappearance. She navigates two worlds--that of her own tribe, changed by its newfound wealth, and that of the non-Native oilmen, down on their luck, who have come to find work on the heels of the economic recession. Her pursuit of Clarke is also a pursuit of redemption, as Lissa atones for her own crimes and reckons with generations of trauma. Yellow Bird is an exquisitely written, masterfully reported story about a search for justice and a remarkable portrait of a complex woman who is smart, funny, eloquent, compassionate, and--when it serves her cause--manipulative. Drawing on eight years of immersive investigation, Sierra Crane Murdoch has produced a profound examination of the legacy of systematic violence inflicted on a tribal nation and a tale of extraordinary healing.
Call Number: HV6762.U5 M78 2020
Article
Religious Rights
- Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1778Prior to the 1930s in America, Indian religious freedom was suppressed, and many religions were driven to extinction. President Jimmy Carter signed a law banning all suppression of Indian religious practices.
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Peyote Road by
Despite challenges by the federal government to restrict the use of peyote, the Native American Church, which uses the hallucinogenic cactus as a religious sacrament, has become the largest indigenous denomination among American Indians today. The Peyote Road examines the history of the NAC, including its legal struggles to defend the controversial use of peyote. Thomas C. Maroukis has conducted extensive interviews with NAC members and leaders to craft an authoritative account of the church's history, diverse religious practices, and significant people. His book integrates a narrative history of the Peyote faith with analysis of its religious beliefs and practices--as well as its art and music--and an emphasis on the views of NAC members. Deftly blending oral histories and legal research, Maroukis traces the religion's history from its Mesoamerican roots to the legal incorporation of the NAC; its expansion to the northern plains, Great Basin, and Southwest; and challenges to Peyotism by state and federal governments, including the Supreme Court decision in Oregon v. Smith. He also introduces readers to the inner workings of the NAC with descriptions of its organizational structure and the Cross Fire and Half Moon services. The Peyote Road updates Omer Stewart's classic 1987 study of the Peyote religion by taking into consideration recent events and scholarship. In particular, Maroukis discusses not only the church's current legal issues but also the diminishing Peyote supply and controversies surrounding the definition of membership. Today approximately 300,000 American Indians are members of the Native American Church. The Peyote Road marks a significant case study of First Amendment rights and deepens our understanding of the struggles of NAC members to practice their faith.
Call Number: E98.R3 M29 2010
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Peyote by
This book explains the role that peyote--a hallucinogenic cactus--plays in the religious and spiritual fulfillment of certain peoples in the United States and Mexico, and examines pressing issues concerning the regulation and conservation of peyote as well as issues of indigenous and religious rights. Why is mescaline--an internationally controlled substance derived from peyote--given exemptions for religious use by indigenous groups in Mexico, and by the pan-indigenous Native American Church in the United States and Canada? What are the intersections of peyote use, constitutional law, and religious freedom? And why are natural populations of peyote in decline--so much so that in Mexico, peyote is considered a species needing "special protection"? This fascinating book addresses these questions and many more. It also examines the delicate relationship between "the needs of the plant" as a species and "the needs of man" to consume the species for spiritual purposes. The authors of this work integrate the history of peyote regulation in the United States and the special "trust responsibility" relationship between the American Indians and the government into their broad examination of peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus containing mescaline that grows naturally in Mexico and southern Texas. The book's chapters document how when it comes to peyote, multiple stakeholders' interests are in conflict--as is often the case with issues that involve ethnic identity, religion, constitutional interpretation, and conservation. The expansion of peyote traditions also serves as a foundation for examining issues of international human rights law and protections for religious freedom within the global milieu of cultural transnationalism. Explains the complete history of the peyote plant in the United States, presenting views from religions including Native American and Christian churches, the creation and evolution of U.S. law regarding peyote, state and federal legal protections since 1990, reasons for the plant's apparent demise, and arguments for its stronger protection Identifies current peyote protective laws in Mexico and Canada Documents how many U.S. residents, including Native Americans, commonly use peyote as a spirituality enhancer or illegal recreational drug within the United States, or do so as tourists when visiting Mexico
Publication Date: 2016-01-18
Environmental Justice
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Our History Is the Future by
In 2016, a small protest encampment at the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota, initially established to block construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, grew to be the largest Indigenous protest movement in the twenty-first century, attracting tens of thousands of Indigenous and non-Native allies from around the world. Its slogan "Mni Wiconi" Water is Life was about more than just a pipeline. Water Protectors knew this battle for Native sovereignty had already been fought many times before, and that, even after the encampment was gone, their anti-colonial struggle would continue. In Our History is the Future, Nick Estes traces traditions of Indigenous resistance leading to the #NoDAPL movement from the days of the Missouri River trading forts through the Indian Wars, the Pick-Sloan dams, the American Indian Movement, and the campaign for Indigenous rights at the United Nations. While a historian by trade, Estes also draws on observations from the encampments and from growing up as a citizen of the Oceti Sakowin (the Nation of the Seven Council Fires), making Our History is the Future at once a work of history, a personal story, and a manifesto.
Call Number: E99.D1 E87 2019
Articles
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Civil Rights
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The Rights of Indians and Tribes by
The Rights of Indians and Tribes, first published in 1983, has sold over 100,000 copies and is the most popular resource in the field of Federal Indian Law. The book, which explains this complex subject in a clear and easy-to-understand way, is particularly useful for tribal advocates, government officials, students, practitioners of Indian law, and the general public. Numerous tribal leaders highly recommend this book. Incorporating a user-friendly question-and-answer format, The Rights of Indians and Tribes addresses the most significant legal issues facing Indians and Indian tribes today, including tribal sovereignty, the federal trust responsibility, the regulation of non-Indians on reservations, Indian treaties, the Indian Civil Rights Act, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, and the Indian Child Welfare Act. This fully-updated new edition features an introduction by John Echohawk, Executive Director of the Native American Rights Fund.
Call Number: KF8210.C5 P481 2012
Native American Rights by
Give your readers a comprehensive understanding on the development of rights for Native Americans. This book addresses four major court decisions, explaining them in detail and sharing majority and dissenting opinions. Legal experts, journalists, and other professionals then share essays that address the long-term implications of each court case. Chapter one teaches readers about affirming the limits of tribal sovereignty. Chapter two explains upholding congressional power over tribes. Chapter three explains compensation for illegal seizure of tribal lands. Chapter four explores whether religious freedom extends to the use of illegal substances.
Call Number: KF8205 .N3855 2008
Articles
Gaming
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Wampum by
In 2015, 239 Indian tribes operated 478 casinos, high-stakes bingo halls, and other gambling facilities on Indian reservations in 28 states that collectively earned $28.5 billion in gross gaming revenue. How did Indian gambling become such a lucrative and commonplace fixture of the American landscape? In Wampum, Donald Craig Mitchell tells the never-before-told story.In 1979, the Mafia opened the nation's first high-stakes Indian bingo hall on the Seminole reservation in Florida. Nine years later, Indian tribes were operating bingo halls on reservations in 23 states. Congress enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act to subject gambling on reservations to regulation by the federal government and the states in which the reservations were located. But, while members of Congress who voted for the bill didn't intend for it to do so, the act facilitated the transformation of Indian bingo halls into what they are today--Las Vegas-style casinos whose gaming floors contain more than 352,000 video slot and other gaming machines. On Capitol Hill, Donald Craig Mitchell is a recognized expert on Indian law and history, and the only researcher who had early access to the records of the committees whose members and staff wrote the bills that became the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. In Wampum, he offers readers the first comprehensive look at the forces in Congress and inside the Bureau of Indian Affairs that have created the Indian gaming industry.
Call Number: HV6715 .M58 2016
Articles
Housing and Reservations
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Rez Life by
Celebrated novelist David Treuer has gained a reputation for writing fiction that expands the horizons of Native American literature. InRez Life, his first full-length work of nonfiction, Treuer brings a novelist's storytelling skill and an eye for detail to a complex and subtle examination of Native American reservation life, past and present. With authoritative research and reportage, Treuer illuminates misunderstood contemporary issues of sovereignty, treaty rights, and natural-resource conservation. He traces the waves of public policy that have disenfranchised and exploited Native Americans, exposing the tension that has marked the historical relationship between the United States government and the Native American population. Through the eyes of students, teachers, government administrators, lawyers, and tribal court judges,he shows how casinos, tribal government, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have transformed the landscape of Native American life. A member of the Ojibwe of northern Minnesota, Treuer grew up on Leech Lake Reservation, but was educated in mainstream America. Exploring crime and poverty, casinos and wealth, and the preservation of native language and culture,Rez Life is a strikingly original work of history and reportage, a must read for anyone interested in the Native American story.
Call Number: E93 .T74 2012
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