Tribal-State Relations in the Anglosphere

Abstract

By analyzing the politics of Indigenous peoples in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, political scientists gain new perspectives on power and powerlessness. Such study offers a new vantage point on pathways of exclusion and regulation, as well as on the pathways of challenging inequity. It illustrates how beliefs and identity configure and reconfigure power. I highlight research from four domains of research on Indigenous politics: studies of political advocacy, political attitudes, rules of the game, and the public good. Political science research on Indigenous peoples fits comfortably within the discipline. It is flush with ideas that draw on and speak to other theories of politics. Were political science to broaden its perspective and recognize the insights available from the racial minority groups and indigenous nations regarding the manner in which law and political institutions channel energies of distinct groups and create, in their application of discriminatory policies, responses and reactions manifest in other areas of life, it could embark on a broadening of its offerings and clientele. Deloria & Wilkins (1999)