Description
Forced Federalism: Contemporary Challenges to Indigenous Nationhood coauthored by Cherokee scholar Jeff Corntassel and Richard C Witmer II, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Creighton University, offers political science students and scholars a convincing account of the methods of forced federalism undertaken by the United States in its efforts to challenge Indigenous sovereignty and economic development in America. Corntassel is Assistant Professor and Graduate Advisor for the Indigenous Governance Programs at the University of Victoria. The book documents the changing conditions Native American Nations face during the 1990s to the present day as they struggle against the American federal government efforts to shift policy from self determination to a forceful federalism. The authors begin this study with an overview of the contemporary challenges to Indigenous Nationhood and the Current Social Constructions of Indigenous Peoples. Understanding the changing perception Americans and state governments have of American Indian Nations as wealthy Indians who have casinos and gaming operations explains some of the attitudes. The authors undertook a forced federalism survey of American Indian communities as part of their analysis. The result is this volume in the American Indian Law and Policy Series published by the University of Oklahoma Press. Additional chapters recount the Gaming Compact between the Sisseton-Wahpeto Sioux Tribe and the State of South Dakota; and Treaty with the Cherokees, 1785. State and federal agencies are attacking American Indian Nations with a new approach and leaders of these Indian Nations must find the resources that enhance their political activism.