Washington Monthly - September/October 2023 - 122

Threads of this centuries-long debate
came to the fore this year, in a Supreme
Court case challenging a 1978 federal
law that gives preference to intra-tribal
adoptions of Indigenous children. The
plaintiffs, which included a white foster
couple from Texas seeking to adopt a Native
American child, argued that the law
violated the equal protection clause of
the Constitution. In June, in a 7-2 decision,
the Court upheld the law, affirming
the federal government's right to make
laws concerning Native American tribes
and protect child welfare, while acknowledging
that it is unusual for Congress to
wade into the area of family law. Citing
a lack of jurisdiction, the Court skirted
the question of whether the law, with its
explicit racial preferences, violated the
equal protection clause, but at least one
justice-Brett Kavanaugh, who voted
with the majority-explicitly welcomed
the opportunity to examine the issue in
a future case.
Constitutional scholars and tribal advocates
agree that the issue at stake-an
affirmation of Native American sovereignty-undergirds
a wide array of established
legal rights on Indian reservaty,
but also in deference to Native Americans'
troubled history. In a concurring
opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that
the Court's decision upheld three promises:
" the right of Indian parents to raise
their families as they please; the right of
Indian children to grow in their culture;
and the right of Indian communities to
resist fading into the twilight of history. "
T
he Rediscovery of America is an important,
possibly even a landmark,
book. Ned Blackhawk persuasively argues
that the histories of Native America
and the United States are inextricably
intertwined and, more controversially,
asserts that an entirely new paradigm-
completely with new themes, geographies,
and chronologies-is necessary to
create a balanced, comprehensive American
history. The book is academically rigorous
and exhaustively researched.
It is, however, an academic book. It
The call for a single, coordinated
diplomatic and military response
to the Native nations and for a
is dense, laden with facts and events.
Blackhawk is scrupulous in his attention
to detail, acknowledging changes over
time, distinctions among tribes, geographies,
and cultures. To his credit, he has
written a nuanced, expansive history.
But for the average, nonscholarly
reader, it's a lot
to digest.
The history of Indigecentralized
authority to regulate
and tax interior lands helped,
in turn, to make the case for
a strong federal government
embodied in the Constitution.
tions, including land ownership, water
and mineral rights, certain forms of judicial
authority, exemption from certain
taxes, and gaming rights. If courts were
to redefine Native Americans as a racial
or ethnic group-like Blacks or Latinos-
all such rights would be at risk.
The Court's majority position makes
clear that the justices were swayed not
merely by questions of constitutionali122
September/October 2023
nous peoples is, at times,
appalling and violent.
And yet, the narrative
is, at times, surprisingly
clinical. Maybe because
Blackhawk writes in academic
prose, or because
the book is so packed
with facts and timelines,
it is less emotionally compelling
than one might
expect. There's also a lost
opportunity for images to carry some
of the weight. The book does include
10 maps and about a dozen photos and
illustrations. But the addition of more
recent images, like photos of the Lakota
occupation of Alcatraz in 1969, or
the politically charged artwork of T. C.
Cannon-could have been really affecting.
In comparison with the 200 pages
that cover the colonial era, Blackhawk's
treatment of the 20th and 21st
centuries feels light. Discussion of the
four decades since 1980-an era characterized
by the resurgence of cultural
identity, the reassertion of tribal sovereignty,
and the expansion of economic
opportunities through the gaming
industry-is particularly cursory,
summarized in just five pages. That's
a shame, because recent events offer
an opportunity to connect historical
threads to current controversies, like
the disputed Dakota Access pipeline.
With The Rediscovery of America, Ned
Blackhawk has opened the door to a national
conversation. Blackhawk sets the
tone with his opening line, asking rhetorically,
" How can a nation founded on
the homelands of dispossessed Indigenous
peoples be the world's most exemplary
democracy? "
Blackhawk is calling for a revolution in
the way American history is conceptualized,
studied, and taught. In doing so, he
takes aim at old myths about American
exceptionalism and the democratic experiment.
Scholars have long debunked
these narratives, although they still retain
some hold in the popular imagination.
While academics and educators can
argue about whether Blackhawk's new
paradigm should replace existing frameworks
for understanding American history,
he has succeeded in demonstrating
that a deeper knowledge of Native American
history should supplement (if not
supplant) our understanding of our collective
national experience.
This book has been born at a particular
cultural moment, in which certain state
officials have meddled with the curricula
of high school civics and history classes,
pressured the College Board to reconsider
the content of its AP African American
history course, and banned the teaching
of critical race theory. In the context of
these culture wars, Blackhawk's book
and his insistence on the centrality of
the Native American experience are tinder.
But it's a conversation worth having.
And long overdue.
Sara Bhatia is an independent museum consultant
who writes about museums, history,
and culture.

Washington Monthly - September/October 2023

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