American Indian Culture and Research Journal

In the latter nineteenth century, few American Indians had rights that powerful economic interests were bound to respect. These speculative interests in central Arizona Territory's Salt River Valley understood this and influenced federal bureaucrats and policymakers to adopt a scheme giving them access to the natural resources of the Gila River Indian Reservation. Led by A. J. Chandler and his Detroit investors, speculators took advantage of a series of poorly written, loosely interpreted, and badly managed federal laws at the turn of the twentieth century and initiated a battle over control of scarce American Indian land and water resources. At stake was the economic and cultural survival of the Pima residing on the Gila River Indian Reservation. While the Pima successfully stopped Chandler's scheme, they were unable to stop the economic transformation occurring around them. Lacking irrigation water needed to farm and sustain themselves, hundreds of Pima men cut thousands of acres of mesquite trees to sell. Chandler's scheme also hastened allotment in severalty of the reservation, encouraged the consolidation of the Pima to the central portion of the reservation, and provided Pima funds for the continued development of the off-reservation Salt River Project. But while it is easy to catapult Chandler into the role of a villain, the founder of the city that bears his name was a product of the social Darwinist philosophies of his day. Subscribing to the theory of survival of the fittest, Chandler used every means available to his advantage. A century later, the City of Chandler and the Gila River Indian twist of irony, the Gila River Indian community today accepts delivery of Salt River Project water through A. J. Chandler's Consolidated Canal, and the northern branch of the Santan floodwater canal that a century ago was designed to carry water to Chandler's ranch, now delivers irrigation water to reservation lands directly west of the former Chandler ranch. In ways A. J. Chandler never could have imagined, water today does indeed flow "down to the Gila."

This study explores the complex cultural, environmental, and economic forces that converge in the United States' Klamath River Basin, also addressing potential solutions. With watershed modifications and construction of dams in the early-twentieth century, ecosystems have been adversely impacted, creating significant challenges for tribes and wildlife, including fish populations. Competing interests and shifting policy priorities have contributed to a highly contested landscape that may be moving toward more sustainable development. Indigenous communities are playing a central role in moving away from long-term conflict among diverse stakeholders over fish and water resources and toward more recent collaborative efforts in planning one of the largest dam removals in history. Two crucial questions are addressed in this paper: (1) What key factors influence environmental governance? and (2) How might proposed dam removal impact socioeconomic conditions? After a brief literature review regarding spatiotemporal conditions, I employ the Social Ecological Systems (SES) framework developed by Ostrom, together with a general economic evaluation, to provide an important preliminary step toward characterizing the multifaceted and interdependent issues. Meaningful variables are identified by unpacking the interactions of governance institutions, actors, and resources within nested settings. Findings from the benefit-cost analysis suggest that the net economic benefits from deconstruction and river restoration may be between $14 to $82 billion. Finally, I recommend further research and use of the Integrative Dam Assessment Modeling (IDAM) tool.

The emergence of vertebrate paleontology as an established, scientific discipline can in part be attributed to large vertebrate fossils found on land dispossessed from indigenous populations from around the world. Specifically, geographic locations of the North American continental interior are known to yield fossiliferous stratagraphic sequences. I argue that vertebrate fossils are another natural resource dispossessed from Native peoples within the historical boundaries of Sioux lands. This body of research discusses the physical and geographical evidence of the first quarter-century of fossil dispossession in Indian country between the years 1846 and 1875.

The logging blockade on Lyell Island in British Columbia, Canada in 1985, together with the events surrounding it, was an important indigenous-led social innovation by the Haida Nation. The social innovation itself was three-fold: (1) it changed the way indigenous nations in Canada reasserted themselves as self-determining; (2) for the Haida Nation to assert their Aboriginal rights and title to the land and resources of Haida Gwaii was an important step, the first of many; and (3) it changed the way environmental campaigns were conducted, both in Canada and internationally. In the 1980s relations between indigenous nations and the British Columbian and Canadian governments were embedded in an enduring, patriarchal-colonial sociopolitical and legal context. The Haida Nation's assertion of land rights and title was an initiative that changed the basic routines, authority flows and beliefs of the social system in British Columbia and Canada. The message that the Haida Nation's traditional territory was not to be exploited in a way that was incongruent with their visions of stewardship of their land had broad and lasting impact that clearly changed a larger institutional and sociopolitical context. The Haida not only created a precedent, but also a catalyst for action with regards to co-management, environmental advocacy, indigenous governance and Aboriginal rights.

Recently, Chief Dull Knife College, the tribal college of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, took new actions to assert sovereignty in relation to reservation schooling. This case study presents an account of these actions, which illustrates the kind of resistance that Hall and Fenelon suggest is possible in tribal college settings. Specifically, as a result of math curriculum reform at the Chief Dull Knife College, student success in math increased. Moreover, unintended consequences include that Northern Cheyenne student identities have been strengthened; college instructors use more culturally relevant strategies; and the tribal college has assumed a new leadership role in improving local schooling.

This commentary examines local processes in the White Earth Nation in the context of the rise and decline of the United States as the world’s hegemonic power. Using the case of the White Earth Nation, I focus on the hegemonic transition period during two economic downturns—the Great Depression and the Great Recession—to illustrate that even in these difficult times, these Native peoples have managed to keep their communities together and maintain the basic aspects of self-government. My findings suggest that adherence to the Anishinaabe moral ideal of mino-bimaadiziwin and cooperative and reciprocal relationships help maintain the structure of community and restore the balance in life.