Doctoral Dissertation Research: Thicker than Blood: Re-membering Identity in U.S. v. Oregon, et al, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Plaintiff-Intervenor

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9413118 Silverstein This Dissertation Improvement project examines the dynamic relationship between the law and culture through an extended study of a treaty rights case in which the Colville Confederated Tribes of northeastern Washington State have been engaged since 1989. In this ongoing case the Colville Tribes are attempting to secure their right to gather fish from the Columbia River system by building on the series of landmark fishing rights cases that have come out of the pacific Northwest since the 1960s. In contrast to these earlier cases, the defendants in the Colville case are not local non-Indians nor state governments, but the Indian tribes whose rights were previously secured through this litigation. In turn, in addition to the significance of the Colville's particular struggle for sovereign rights, their case is representative of the most developed and refined legal methods of interpreting culturally-based rights in the U.S., and also of the kinds of changes in cultural relations that result from the resolution of social conflicts through litigation -- the "legalization" of cultural identities. This study will take "language use" as its focus in order to explore the dynamic between law and culture form these related, but distinct perspectives. This study will analyze (1) the formulae by which federal courts interpret the language of the treaty contracts that are central focus in this case, (2) the methods by which the court produces and interprets the testimony of tribal witnesses, and (3) the manner in which tribal witnesses speak about the issues and events central to this case and about the law itself. Colville and federal methods of defining legitimate identity and of narrating history will be compared. Research will be conducted on the Colville reservation where extensive recorded interviews will be conducted with Colville witnesses, other relevant Colville tribal members and Colville attorneys about the central issues and events raised in this case and about the law more generally. Trial transcripts and the exhibits presented in this case will also be reviewed.