Crow Dog's Case: American Indian Sovereignty, Tribal Law, and United States Law in the Nineteenth Century

Cambridge Studies in North American Indian History

by Sidney L. Harring

Crow Dog's Case is the first social history of American Indians' role in the making of American law. The book sheds new light on Native American struggles for sovereignty and justice in nineteenth century America. This "century of dishonor," a time when American Indians' lands were lost and their tribes reduced to reservations, provoked a wide variety of tribal responses. Some of the more successful responses were in the area of law, forcing the newly independent American legal order to create a unique place for Indian tribes in American law.

Genres: History

320 pages, Paperback

First published February 25, 1994

Reviews

[Porter Broyles]

I have mixed feelings about this book.

While I loved the book while reading it and kept thinking,"Wow how do we not know this", but I find myself judging the book based more on what I felt when I wasn't actively reading it.

If I didn't have the book in my hand, it was a book that was hard to pick up. Part of that is undoubtedly because I'm not familiar with the subject, part of it is probably my internal racism and lack of understanding with native Americans.... But part of it was that this book was too dense I knew it would not be an easy read.

[Janice]

Legal history of settler colonization.

[J.]

Another exceptional book. I appreciated it especially for how it shows the connection Indian culture and life and how it impacted and manifested as the complex body of American Indian law that we have today. This covers how it came about and it's relevance today becomes obvious.