Linking Arms Together: American Indian Treaty Visions of Law and Peace, 1600-1800

by Williams, Jr.,Robert A.

• ISBN13: 9780415925778
• ISBN10: 0415925770
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1999-09-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

In this readable yet sophisticated survey of treaty-making between Native and European Americans before 1800, Robert A. Williams, Jr. argues that Native Americans were active participants in the crafting of a shared legal culture. Legal historians have too often depicted Indians as merely acted upon by the white man's laws and institutions. In contrast, Williams looks at the numerous treaties Indians actively negotiated with whites and explores how they drew on their own unique traditions of diplomacy to resist and even influence the conduct of European law.Linking Arms Togetherrecovers a deeper understanding of how Indians tried to forge a new society with whites on the multicultural frontiers of North America-an understanding that may enlighten our own task of protecting Native American rights and imagining racial justice.

Author Biography

Robert A. Williams, Jr. is E. Thomas Sullivan Professor of Law and American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona

Table of Contents

Introduction: Paradigms for Behavior	3	(14)
National Mythologies and American Indians	14	(26)
Treaties as Sacred Texts	40	(22)
Treaties as Connections	62	(21)
Treaties as Stories	83	(15)
Treaties as Constitutions	98	(26)
Conclusion: Understanding American Indian Treaty Visions of Law and Peace	124	(15)
Notes	139	(46)
Index	185