Edited by Troy R. Johnson, 1995. The occupation of Alcatraz Island represents the longest continuous occupation of a federal facility by any minority group in US history. Alcatraz set in motion a wave of overtly nationalist Indian militancy that ultimately resulted in abandonment of the US government`s policy of termination and the adoption of a … Read more
Edited by Kristen A. Carpenter, Matthew L.M. Fletcher, and Angela R. Riley, 2012. Congress passed the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 (ICRA) to address civil rights in Indian country. ICRA extended select, tailored provisions of the Bill of Rights-including equal protection, due process, free speech and religious exercise, criminal procedure, and property rights-to tribal … Read more
New from UCLA American Indian Studies Center Press! Drafting and adopting a constitution is a collective journey of self-discovery and reflection for any nation, Indigenous or non-Indigenous. This book is a guide for communities engaged in the process of drafting a constitution and for students who are studying that process. It draws on research, firsthand … Read more
By John E. Smelcer, 2000. In these poems, written in the Ahtna language and then rendered into memorable English, John Smelcer conveys a strong sense of his ancestry (Cherokee/Ahtna), what poet Denise Levertov calls “his constant haunting awareness of indigenous life so grievously wounded yet still alive.” Smelcer speaks from the Alaskan landscape, for the … Read more
By Michael Kabotie (Lomawywesa), 1987. Michael Kabotie or Lomawywesa, son of the artist Fred Kabotie, was born in 1942 at Shungopavi. He is of the Hopi Sinnum, Water/Snow clan, and he is a painter, lithographer, serigrapher, goldsmith and silversmith. In this book of poetry he recreates Hopi traditions for modern Indians in bold, traditional strokes. … Read more
By Charles Brashear, 2000. Brashear`s collection of short stories addresses American Indian-white contact throughout the history of North America. Several of the stories involve mixed bloods, products of Indian-white marriages, a situation that nearly always generates divided loyalties and identity crises. Each story highlights an individual`s quandary—and often alienation—in negotiating and adapting to a face-to-face … Read more
By Norla Chee, 2001. This collection of thirty-seven poems seamlessly weaves the spiritual with the daily and the present with the past. Chee`s poetry as song and story is a mix of Navajo, which is her cultural heritage, and the “Other,” as indicated by non-Navajo customs, ideas, and experiences. She utilizes this comparison to bring … Read more
Edited by Charlotte Heth, assisted by Michael Swarm, 1991. This collection of essays grew out of a 1982 conference organized around the theme of “sharing” in historical (or traditional) and contemporary arts. Contributors include scholars and practicing American Indian artists. The essays in this book address the issue of cultural development for individual and community … Read more
Edited by Robert Griffin and Donald A. Grinde Jr., 1997. Said to have been written by an Iroquois prophet in 1305, and revealed to a French emissary in 1776, this text has languished in French book repositories since 1777. An evaluation of the original text, said to be of an Iroquois prophet Chiokoyhikoy, comes from … Read more
By Jean Chaudhuri and Joyotpaul Chaudhuri, 2001. A Sacred Path explains and documents Creek persistence as a people despite having been defrauded and dispossessed of their ancient homelands. The book connects the Muscogee sacred history with the land, the spirit world, the confederacy`s sociopolitical organization, and its ceremonial cycle in a carefully researched and well-written single … Read more