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Anti‐Indianism in Modern America:. Voice from Tatekeya's Earth. Elizabeth Cook‐Lynn. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2001. 225 pp.

American Indians have finally emerged into public consciousness as a distinct minority group. Both government policies in the postwar decades and personal choices have produced a large urban Indian population and have increased economic and political opportunities for reser vation Indians. The social welfare programs of the sixties were in general ill-conceived because they were amendments to larger pieces of national legislation and were often unsuited to the needs and capabilities of reservation Indians. Edu cation in particular has become a mixture of programs that serves few Indians well. Higher education has become a routine and badly administered field that produces little of value for American Indians. Recent political slogans such as tribal sovereignty have made some inroads into the traditional federal relationship, but in general the term has been mis understood and misused. Energy needs have made Indian natural resources an important area for Indian concern. Two basic philosophies compete to attract Indian allegiance: development according to traditional means with royalty income and futuristic agricultural projects that create mini mum disruption and exploitation. Indians stand at the cross roads in identifying and establishing their relationship to the institutions of the larger society.

Factors in the emergence of American Indians as a distinctive ethnic group are described. Dislocations within reservation communities in the postwar period are detailed, focusing on: (1) urbanization & the dropping median age of reservation residents; (2) technology & transport innovations; (3) fragmentation of federal Indian policy & programs; & (4) experimentation & the influence of the civil rights movement. Current issues discussed include: continued lack of economic access, particularly in education; the question of developing energy & mineral resources on Indian lands; conservation-minded agricultural projects; political activism & tribal organization; & areas of increasing cultural development & visibility. 1 Table. Modified HA.

The period 1957-77 witnessed an increasing tendency to include Indians in programs and legislation that affected all Americans, particularly in the field of social wel fare and development. Indians, as a whole, made good use of their eligibility for these new opportunities, and entered the mainstream of public social concern. Legislation dealing specifically with Indian rights and legal status was generally trivial because no administration made more than a perfunc tory effort to define the larger philosophical issues that might have clarified and modernized the Indian legal status. In liti gation Indians were unusually successful in some of their efforts, although, again, truly definitive cases that might have proved a fertile ground for long-term gains in the development of contemporary understanding were sparse. Generally, those cases which might have produced landmark theories or doc trines, the Supreme Court refused to take and the decisions, remaining on the federal circuit level, are not sufficiently strong or clear to provide a basis for further development. The era ended with a state of benign confusion, in which Indians seemed more concerned with funding programs than sketching out in broader and more comprehensive terms the ideologies and theories that are necessary for sustained growth. It was, basically, an undistinguished era, but one of maturing and awareness.

The period 1957-1977 witnessed an increasing tendency to include Indians in programs & legislation that affected all Americans, particularly in the field of social welfare & development. Indians, as a whole, made good use of their eligibility for these new opportunities, & entered the mainstream of public social concern. Legislation dealing specifically with Indian rights & legal status was generally trivial because no administration made more than a perfunctory effort to define the larger philosophical issues that might have clarified & modernized the Indian legal status. In litigation Indians were usually successful in some of their efforts, although truly definitive cases that might have proved a fertile ground for long-term gains in the development of contemporary understanding were sparse. Generally, those cases which might have produced landmark theories or doctrines, the Supreme Court refused to take & the decisions, remaining on the federal circuit level, are not sufficiently strong or clear to provide a basis for further development. The era ended in a state of benign confusion, in which Indians seemed more concerned with funding programs that sketched out in broader & more comprehensive terms the ideologies & theories that are necessary for sustained growth. HA.

In the last year and a half the familiar stereotype of the faithful Indian companion silently marching alongside the white hero à la Tonto has been rudely shaken. First a group of Sioux Indians invaded a sleepy Nebraska town where one of their kinsmen had been brutally murdered and demanded justice. Then there was the occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters during the week of the 1972 national elections and the almost total destruction of that building. Tempers had hardly cooled by the end of 1972 when the same group of Indian activists invaded Custer, South Dakota, burned a stall-like Chamber of Commerce building and scared the settlers who had moved into the Black Hills, winding up their confrontation with the destruction; of several bars in Rapid City, South Dakota.