Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations

The late Vine Deloria, Jr. refered to Charles Wilkinson's book as "the book---we will not need another one on this topic." I am not sure that is true but Wilkinson has completed a masterpiece on the resurgent American Indian nations. Extremely well-written and outstanding documentation; it lacks an annotated bibliography but his numerous primary and secondary sources are located in the endnotes. This is without question a must-read for serious students of American Indian history. The author exhibits a keen understanding of the dynamics of political, social, economic and spiritual traditions of the many nations. His work points to the emergence of hope and progress that has taken place and the progress yet to come. He does not ignore the setbacks and pitfalls but understands that change is inevitable and change always consists of triumphs and defeats.

There have been a number of first person accounts of the struggles of the American Indian in the U.S. Among these are Russel Means' Where White Men Fear to Tread: The Autobiography of Russell Means, Dennis Banks' Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks And The Rise Of The American Indian Movement. General histories have examined similar subjects such as In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, Incident at Oglala - The Leonard Peltier Story. But this is the most thorough story of the movement of America's Indian nations towards self rule since 1960. The first portion of the book gives an introduction to American policy towards native tribes, from various treaties to the reservation system and in 1953, the policy of termination or ending government subsidies. The book is made up fo sketches of political battles in Washington and descriptions of the fate of the tribes and their leaders. A vast number of tribes are described and their vairous struggles. Maps are provided for mnay of the tribes. As the author notes "the modern tribal sovereignty movement has had no single great inspiration leader...Indian country contains 500 seperate and independent peoples.(page 106)" An appendix gives a list of all these tribes. Interesting chapters detail the Taos Pueblo and their victory in receiving lands. The story of the Alaskan attempt to free their lands led to an act in 1971 that returned 45 million acres to the people. Court cases are described such as Merion v. Jacarilla Apache that helped shape the question of sovereign rights among tribes. The scale and breadth of this study is amazing, it examines topics such as the preservation of language and the intricate details of tribal government. An amazing work. Seth J. Frantzman

Wilkinson writes a very good overview of the Indian rights movement in the U.S., and how the various tribes, though still lagging overall American standards in many ways, have made economic gains and, above all, self-determination gains, in the last 50 years. It is true that Wilkinson does overlook the degree of non-Indian hostility to such things as enforcement of off-reservation hunting and fishing rights. He also, to counter the angle of this (and not being an environmenetalist), does not look at how the enforcement of these rights has been used as a scapegoat by Anglos for overhunting, overfishing, and overextraction of other resources such as timber in other Anglo-Indian conflicts. Another slim area of coverage is the American Indian Movement. Just what was the tension between the more urban, but not anywhere near "urbanized," AIM and reservation tribes? What's Wilkinson's final assessment of how much good, or harm, it did? Finally, Wilkinson does dive into intra-tribal conflict as much as he could. With the Hopi, for example, he briefly mentions tension between a Washington-driven Hopi constitution and tribal council, on the one hand, and the traditional council of elders, on the other, but never brings to life the depth of this tension, and even conflict, over an issue like Black Mesa. In other words, this book could well have stood another 50-70 pages and not have been overwritten. But, enjoy it for what it is.

Blood Struggle: The Rise Of Modern Indian Nations is the compelling true story of how Indian nations successfully asserted themselves and fought for their rights, including land ownership, salmon fishing, religion, gaming, and self-determination. After the end of World War II, when the American government coveted Indian land, a process called "termination" - a plan to sell off tribal land, disband tribes, and assimilate Native Americans - threatened to effectively native cultures. Yet beginning with a campaign in which Pueblo people persuaded Congress to return their sacred Blue Lake, one by one, Indian tribes started to speak up and call for their rights. These were battles that could be fought and won not by violence, but through politics, and the fruits of victory were reduced poverty, improved health, a lessening of the all-too-common adoption of Indian children out of Indian families, the creation of schools and colleges, the freedom to practice Native American religions and more. A remarkable true story of can-do vindication, and enthusiastically recommended for Native American modern history and reference shelves.

The second half of the Twentieth Century was a period of great social upheaval in the United States. The changes wrought by the Civil Rights, women's, environmental, and anti-war movements are well-known. Perhaps less well-known, but of great importance, are the changes brought about by American Indian Tribes as they sought to organize their governments, implement and determine their treaty rights, and revitalize their traditional cultures. The story of tribal self-determination is told with eloquence and passion by Professor Charles Wilkinson in his recent book, "Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations" (2005). Professor Wilkinson is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Colorado School of Law and the author of twelve books dealing with Indian affairs and with the American West. He is also a distinguished advocate and has worked as counsel to many Indian tribes on matters discussed in this book. In his comprehensive and readable history, Professor Wilkinson places the self-determination movement against the backdrop of earlier Indian policy. He begins with the General Allotment Act of 1887 in which Congress provided for the division of Reservation lands to individual Indians with the goal of assimilating the Indians into the broader society and selling-off the tribal land base. He follows this with a discussion of Indian policy during the New Deal which partly reversed this trend but which lead to the policy of termination in the 1950s and early 1960s. The termination policy was also assimilationist in nature and had the goal of ending Federal supervision of and the special Federal relationship to Indian tribes. The tribes succeeded in reversing the termination policy when, in 1973, Congress passed a law restoring the Federal relationship to the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin. Professor Wilkinson was instrumental in securing this legislation. Professor Wilkinson offers an intellectual, legal, and cultural history of Indian self-determination. His book is full of stories and anecdotes of tribal people and their leaders: this multi-dimensional approach brings his study to life. I learned a great deal from his discussion of the work of three influential Indian writers: Charles Eastman, Black Hawk, (primarily in the famous book "Black Elk Speaks" by John Neihardt) and Darcy McNickle. Wilkinson's treatment of these writers provides a good understanding to the tribal movement and is frequently overlooked in other treatments of this subject. Professor Wilkinson offers well-paced accounts of the Indian attempted takeovers at Alcatraz and of portions of the BIA buildings in Washington, D.C. in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The book discusses, with the perspective of the insider, the salmon fishing litigation in the Northwest in which tribes secured a recognition of their treaty rights (the "Boldt" decision), the story of Indian land claims in the Northeast, tribal efforts to restore land unjustly taken from the