Tribal Organizations and Structures

Description

This course, the third of the 1st Year Tribal Concentration Courses, focuses on the organizational structure and operations of tribal governments. The relationships between structure and institutions as set forth by tribal constitutions written according to the IRA models will be compared to non-IRA models for governance. The influence of the Indian Self-determination Act and the Tribal Self-governance Act will also be explored.   Students will critically analyze tribal governance institutions and practices including management systems and budgeting processes. Tribal membership criteria, enrollment procedures and membership rights, tribal constitutional change and relationships between traditional and contemporary governance practices are subjects that will be addressed in class readings and discussion.  Students will also analyze the scope of authority of tribal courts and the separation of tribal legislative from administrative and judicial functions. 

Books:

Berry, Kate and Henderson, Martha, Geographical Identities of Ethnic American; Trace, Space and Place. University of Nevada Press, Reno Nevada, 2002.  Handout: Chapter Nine, "Coping with Health Care Delivery on the Round Valley Indian Reservation, Teresa L. Dillinger. (pages 201-227)

 Cruz, Zuni Christine, Tribal Law as Indigenous Social Reality and Separate Consciousness: Reincorporating Custom and Traditions into Tribal Law. Tribal Law Journal, University of New Mexico School of Law, Albuquerque, NM, Handout: pages 1-15.

 Handout and Moodle postings on:" Racialising Tribal Identity and the Implications for Political and Cultural Development" by Kimberly Tallbear

 Lamont, Eric (ed.). (2006). American Indian Constitutional Reform and the Rebuilding of Native Nations. University of Texas Press. ISBN: 978-0-292-71317-8

 The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, The State of Native Nations; Conditions under US Policies of Self-Determination Oxford University Press ISBN 13: 9780195301267 paperback 448 pages May 2007

  Rebuilding Native Nations; Strategies for Governance and Development Edited by Miriam Jorgensen; University of Arizona Press 384 pp. 2007