Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations

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W. W. Norton & Company, 2005 - History - 543 pages
FOR GENERATIONS, Indian people suffered a grinding poverty and political and cultural suppression on the reservations. But tenacious and visionary tribal leaders refused to give in. They knew their rights and insisted that the treaties be honored. Against all odds, beginning shortly after World War II, they began to succeed. The modern tribal sovereignty movement deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as the civil rights, environmental, and women's movements. Charles Wilkinson recounts in colorful terms tribal victories in major legal conflicts in contemporary America: the Indian land claims in Maine and other eastern states, the "salmon wars" of the Pacific Northwest, and the establishment of tribal casinos as a way of making inroads into poverty. "Blood Struggle explores how Indian tribes took their hard-earned sovereignty--their right to self-determination--and put it to work for Indian peoples and the perpetuation of Indian culture. Finally, this is the story of wrongs righted and noble ideals upheld.
 

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Contents

Indian Country August 1953
3
The Deadening Years
27
Termination
57
LAST STAND
87
The Making of a Movement
89
Leadership on the Reservations
113
Red Power
129
The Salmon People
150
Revitalizing Tribal Communities
271
Stewards of the Land
304
Casino Lights and the Quandary of Indian Economic Progress
329
Preserving the Old Ways
352
The Outlook
383
NOTES
385
State and Federally Recognized Tribes
487
Largest Landholding Tribes
498

FOUNDATIONS for SELFDETERMINATION
175
Turning Points
177
Reclaiming Heartlands
206
Sovereignty in Congress and trie Courts
241
Most Populous Tribes
499
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
501
INDEX
507
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