Indians 78, Washington State 0: Stories about Indians and the Law

In the 1970s Washington State lost a series of legal cases related to Native Americans. These cases exemplify the need for knowledge of federal Indian law-but such knowledge, out of context, is insufficient. Key aspects of federal Indian law are hard to accept because of conflicting stories that Americans already believe. The authors discuss the importance of stories and review commonly believed stories that block acceptance of federal Indian law. They then discuss basic principles of Indian law and distill four questions to help determine tribal jurisdiction. The authors review the Marshal trilogy—three Supreme Court cases that set the foundations of modern Native American law—and show how the legal principles play out in an analysis of three contemporary court cases.     

A Third Way to Where? * R. STRATHDEE, Social Exclusion and the Remaking of Social Networks, Ashgate, 2005, 220 pp., ISBN 0 7546 3815 4, hb. {pound}50.

. . . a defining feature of Third Way governments is a beliefthat the judicious use of both market and non-market strategiescan strengthen and empower communities and help them to developsolutions to their own social and economic problems. (p. 56)

In this study, Robert Strathdee examines the nature of networksand their role in the transition to employment. He argues, inparticular, that social networks based around the ties of familyand kin have declined, thus reducing traditional patterns ofentry to employment. Hence, to put it simply, the state seeksto provide alternative routes into employment for young people.Strathdee considers these forms of intervention in both NewZealand and England, drawing from empirical information aboutboth countries. Arguably, a more challenging comparison couldhave