Title: Displacing the Judiciary: Customary Law and the Threat of a Defensive Tribal Council: A Book Review of Raymond D. Austin, Navajo Courts and Navajo Common Law: A Tradition of Tribal Self-Governance (2009)
Abstract: Since it opened, the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian has been criticized. The decision of the Museum not to tell the story of tribal life, particularly the history of contact with non-Indians, in a linear, scholarly fashion is faulted by many, critics and visitors alike. The primary permanent exhibits, Our Peoples and Our Universes, give space to selected tribes to tell the stories of their lives and their beliefs.1 According to a New York Times review of the Museum, the result is a monotony of similar stories; the review harshly explains that [t]he notion that tribal voices should be heard becomes a problem when the selected voices have so little to say.2 The main message of the tribal voices featured in the Museum's permanent exhibits is twofold: we (continue to) exist, and this is who we are as a people. Tellingly, Kevin Gover, Director of the Museum and former Arizona State University law professor, recently observed, I'm stunned by the number of people who are angry when they come to the museum and see it is about Indians who are still here, rather than Indians who used to be.3
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-01-01
Language: en
Type: review
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