Rights, Resentment, and Social Change: The Politics of Treaty Rights.

This paper assesses the capacity of Native American tribal governments to exercise their treaty rights in order to upset status quo political configurations. Indeed, I focus primarily upon the ways in which an increasing number of Native American tribes have successfully guaranteed federal support for tribally initiated economic and cultural reclamation projects. Critical to the success of several of these reclamation projects has been the legal recognition by federal courts of rights that are contained within treaties (some of which date from as early as the 18th century) that were signed between the United States government and a host of Native American tribes. Equally important for the success of tribal reclamation efforts, however, has been the willingness of tribes to mobilize their treaty rights in order to enforce federal and state compliance with the provisions that they promise. These sorts of legal claims, and the responses to them by various actors, are the focus of my paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]