Indian Self Determination

Examines the educational programs American Indians developed to preserve their cultural and ethnic identity, improve their livelihood, and serve the needs of their youth in Chicago. After World War II, American Indians began relocating to urban areas in large numbers, in search of employment. Partly influenced by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, this migration from rural reservations to metropolitan centers presented both challenges and opportunities. This history examines the educational programs American Indians developed in Chicago and gives particular attention to how the American Indian community chose its own distinct path within and outside of the larger American Indian self-determination movement. In what John J. Laukaitis terms community self-determination, American Indians in Chicago demonstrated considerable agency as they developed their own programs and worked within already existent institutions. The community-based initiatives included youth programs at the American Indian Center and St. Augustine’s Center for American Indians, the Native American Committee’s Adult Learning Center, Little Big Horn High School, O-Wai-Ya-Wa Elementary School, Native American Educational Services College, and the Institute for Native American Development at Truman College. Community Self-Determination presents the first major examination of these initiatives and programs and provides an understanding of how education functioned as a form of activism for Chicago’s American Indian community. John J. Laukaitis is Assistant Professor of Education at North Park University.

This book compares and contrasts historical and contemporary Canadian and U.S. Native American policy. The contributors include economists, political scientists, and lawyers, who, despite analyzing a number of different groups in several eras, consistently take a political economy approach to the issues. Using this framework, the authors examine the evolution of property rights, from wildlife in pre-Columbian times and the potential for using property rights to resolve contemporary fish and wildlife issues, to the importance of customs and culture to resource use decisions; the competition from states for Native American casino revenues; and the impact of sovereignty on economic development. In each case, the chapters present new data and new ways of thinking about old evidence. In addition to providing a framework for analysis and new data, this book suggests how Native American and First Nation policy might be reformed toward the end of sustainable economic development, cultural integrity, and self-determination. For these reasons, the book should be of interest to scholars, policy analysts, and students of Native American law, economics, and resource use, as well as those interested in the history of Native Americans and Canada’s First Nations.

A collaboration between Native activists, professionals, and scholars, Re-Creating the Circle brings a new perspective to the American Indian struggle for self-determination: the returning of Indigenous peoples to sovereignty, self-sufficiency, and harmony so that they may again live well in their own communities, while partnering with their neighbors, the nation, and the world for mutual advancement. Given the complexity in realizing American Indian renewal, this project weaves the perspectives of individual contributors into a holistic analysis providing a broader understanding of political, economic, educational, social, cultural, and psychological initiatives. The authors seek to assist not only in establishing American Indian nations as full partners in American federalism and society, but also in improving the conditions of Indigenous people world wide, while illuminating the relevance of American Indian tradition for the contemporary world facing an abundance of increasing difficulties.

Presents the native viewpoints on issues related to the government of status Indians such as aboriginal rights, treaty rights and Indian-provincial relationships.

Largely forgotten today, the National Council on Indian Opportunity (1968–1974) was the federal government’s establishment of self-determination as a way to move Indians into the mainstream of American life. By endorsing the principle that Indians possessed the right to make choices about their own lives, envision their own futures, and speak and advocate for themselves, federal policy makers sought to ensure that Native Americans possessed the same economic, political, and cultural opportunities afforded other Americans. In this book, the first study of the NCIO, historian Thomas A. Britten traces the workings of the council along with its enduring impact on the lives of indigenous people.

Kessler-Mata argues for a constitutive theory of tribal sovereignty based on the interconnected relationships between tribes and non-federal governments.

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