David Wilkins, faculty in the Department of American Indian Studies, was recently featured in a story on This American Life. The story, Part one of an episode titled Tribes, is about a tribe in California called the Chukchansi who are fighting over enrollment.

Books by David Wilkins

The hank adams reader : An exemplary native activist and the unleashing of indigenous sovereignty(2011). . Golden, Colo.: Golden, Colo. : Fulcrum Pub.

Deloria, V. (2011). The legal universe : Observations on the foundations of american law. Golden, Colo.: Golden, Colo. : Fulcrum.

Documents of native american political development : 1500s to 1933(2009). Oxford ; New York: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press.

Wilkins, D. E. (. E., 1954-. (2007). American indian politics and the american political system. Lanham, Md.: Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield.

Cohen, F. S., 1907-1953. (2006). In Robertson L. G. (Ed.), On the drafting of tribal constitutions. Norman: Norman : University of Oklahoma Press.

Native voices : American indian identity and resistance(2003). In Grounds R. A., Tinker G. E. (Eds.), . Lawrence: Lawrence : University Press of Kansas.

Wilkins, D. E. (. E., 1954-. (2003). The navajo political experience. Lanham, Md.: Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littefield.

Wilkins, D. E. (. E., 1954-. (2001). Uneven ground : American indian sovereignty and federal law. Norman; Norman Okla.]: Norman : University of Oklahoma Press.

Deloria, V. (1999). Tribes, treaties, and constitutional tribulations. Austin: Austin : University of Texas Press.

Wilkins, D. E. (. E., 1954-. (1997). In ebrary I. (Ed.), American indian sovereignty and the U.S. supreme court the masking of justice. Austin: Austin : University of Texas Press.

The Native American mascot controversy : a handbook

Sports mascots have been a tradition for decades. Along with the usual lions and tigers, many schools are represented by Native American images. Once considered a benign practice, numerous studies have proved just the opposite: that the use of Native American mascots in educational institutions has perpetuated a shameful history of racial insensitivity. The Native American Mascot Controversy provides an overview of the issues that have been associated with this topic for the past 40 years. The book provides a comprehensive and critical account of the issues surrounding the controversy, explicating the importance of anti-Indian racism in education and how it might be challenged. A collection of important primary documents and an extensive list of resources for further study are also included. Expounding the dangers and damages associated with their continued use, The Native American Mascot Controversy is a useful guide for anyone with an interest in race relations.

Never one nation : freaks, savages, and whiteness in U.S. popular culture, 1850-1877

In Never One Nation, Linda Frost argues that during the eventful decades surrounding the Civil War, American identity was constructed not only nationally but also locally. Depictions of race, class, and sexuality seen in P. T. Barnum's museums, in the image of the Circassian Beauty, and in popular periodicals like Harper's Weekly, the Southern Illustrated News, and the San Francisco Golden Era further illustrated who was - and who was not - an American. Local coverage of Native Americans and Chinese in the West, African Americans and recent Irish immigrants in New York, and slaves and Yankees in the South played a major role in conflating Americanness with whiteness. These ideas were shaped by reactions to events such as the 1863 Draft Riots and the Dakota uprising in Minnesota in 1862, and laid bare through the demonization of Northern whites in Confederate newspapers and anxieties expressed in California newspapers about the possibility of Chinese immigrants gaining U.S. citizenship. Through close readings of specific articles published in regional periodicals, mostly unexamined by literary scholars, Frost shows how Americanness came to be defined in the mid-nineteenth century by the mainstream popular culture. The era's many social upheavals - Emancipation, Reconstruction, the start of the Indian wars in the West, immigration, and the completion of the transcontinental railroad - sharpened the desire of Americans to feel part of a national community, even as they made this search for an American identity extremely contentious and necessarily fragmented. Never One Nation provocatively reframes the discourse on racial formation and reveals how local cultures and prejudices can recast the identity of a nation.

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A work of creative nonfiction inspired by the true story of two South Dakota teenagers, Mark St. Pierre's Of Uncommon Birthdraws upon extensive interviews and exhaustive research in military archives to present a harrowing story of two young men--one white, one Indian--caught in the vortex of the Vietnam War. Dale, a young middle-class white American from South Dakota, joins the army during the Vietnam War and dreams of serving his country. Frank, a young Lakota Indian, joins the army both in an effort to flee the seemingly inescapable circumstances of his life and to follow his people's warrior tradition. In Of Uncommon Birth, Mark St. Pierre intimately weaves together the lives of these two young men from very different worlds. Each in his own way struggles with issues of loyalty, responsibility, sacrifice, and personal identity through his experiences in Vietnam. Of Uncommon Birthpresents the ironic story of what it means for an American Indian soldier in Vietnam to let himself become stereotyped as the Native "good luck charm" for his unit as a way to find acceptance, approval, and identity within the majority culture, even if the Brave and Loyal Indian Scout stereotype carries with it the smell of death.

Check out these great materials on the Dakota Conflict, which occurred 150 years ago this year.

Dakota Conflict (film)
Produced, and written by Kristian Berg. 1993
This documentary takes another look at the events of August 1862 and explores the attitudes and points of view of both the white settlers and the Dakota people.

The War in Words: reading the Dakota Conflict Through the Captivity Literature
Derounian-Stodola, Kathryn Zabelle. 2009

This year,we will be celebrating Native American Heritage Month by showcasing items in University Library Collections and other resources from around the University of Minnesota campus twice a week throughout the month of November.