Review of Making Indian Law: The Hualapai Land Case and the Birth of Ethnohistory

Document Type

Book Review

Publication Date

2007

Abstract

Litigation involving Indian claims in the modern era often revolves around the complex and expensive reports prepared by ethnohistorians, historians, anthropologists, and other experts. Any claim involving the meaning of a treaty provision or whether a tribe qualifies for gaming on lands acquired after 1988 or even whether a tribe should be federally recognized will involve this battle of experts. Tribal victories in the Sioux Nation’s Black Hills land claim, Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes treaty fishing rights, and eastern land claims would have been unobtainable without careful expert testimony. One original model for this form of tribal litigation is depicted in University of Virginia professor Christian W. McMillen’s excellent study, Making Indian Law: The Hualapai Land Case and the Birth of Ethnohistory.

Comments

Work published when author not on Michigan Law faculty.


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