From Self-Determination to Self-Domination: Native Americans, Western Culture, and the Promise of Constitutional-Based Reform

Abstract

This Article draws upon several sources in considering possible solutions to some of the key legal and cultural issues facing Native Americans. The Article provides a brief legal and cultural background of Native Americans, then considers the experiences of other countries in their attempts to address issues surrounding indigenous peoples and multiethnic states. The experiences of Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia provide a comparative paradigm through which to analyze similar issues in the United States and shed light on a possible new beginning for Native American policy. Rather than making conclusary assertions about specific policies, this Article instead attempts to redefine the scope of the issues facing Native Americans and suggests that even the current language in describing Native American issues provides a barrier to improving the lives of native peoples in the United States. To have even a chance to resolve some of the current challenges facing Native Americans, the Article finds that proposed solutions should be based on a new concept, that of Self-Domination, instead of Self-Determination. Self-Domination, the Article explains, is a concept designed to override and move beyond the Self-Determination Era; an era that has failed in its most fundamental, if well-meaning, goals.

Keywords: Native American, Indian, native peoples, indigenous, comparative, constitution, constitutional