American Indian Tribes

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that today the American Indian tribes are believed to have sovereign powers, which can be characterized as independent from both the federal and state governments. Therefore, they are considered to be a nation within a nation under the current American legal system. The writer points out that there are, however, limitations to the tribes' jurisdiction. The paper concludes that, as evidenced by the stand off at Wounded Knee and numerous other historical events, it is clear that Native-American Indians desire real authority over their own relations amongst themselves and perceive themselves as degraded by the lack of full sovereignty.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
The Challenges of Native American Sovereignty
Wounded Knee
Conclusion: The Future of Native American Sovereignty

From the Paper:

"In the end, the events at Wounded Knee were exceedingly far more traumatic for Native American Indians in this country than it was for the white American population. The Wounded Knee incident was a direct result of the near-century long inability for Native Americans to come to an agreement with the majority population on the issue of sovereignty within their lands. The form of tribal government that had been granted to the Natives was thus not efficient in solving problems on reservations."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Abourezk, James G. Wounded Knee, 1973 Series. University of South Dakota, Special Collections Website. Retrieved May 10, 2007 <http://www.usd.edu/library/special/wk73hist.htm>
• Deloria, Vine and Clifford M. Lytle. The Nations Within: The Past and Future of American Indian Sovereignty. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984.
• McKiernan, Kevin Barry. "Notes from a Day at Wounded Knee." American Indian Movement Documents from MSU. Retrieved 24 October 2007 from <http://www.aics.org/WK/wk068.html>
• Morris, R., Sanchez, J., & Stuckey, M. (1999). Rhetorical Exclusion: The Government's Case Against American Indian Activists, AIM, and Leonard Peltier [Electronic version]. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 23(2), 27-55.
• Parsons, James. "Inside Wounded Knee." Minneapolis Tribune 25 March 1973. Retrieved on Oct. 24, 2007 from <http://www.startribune.com/blogs/oldnews/?p=189>

More papers on American Indian Tribes:

• Book Review # 66232 : "North American Indian Ecology"
• Essay # 67173 : "Suicide & the American Indian"
• Term Paper # 98345 : "Juvenile Delinquency on US American Indian Reservations"

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