Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: The Interactions of Tribal Governments and Local Authorities: What are the Consequences of Federal Institutions

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This doctoral dissertation research project examines the ways in which racial animosity, economic disparity, and institutions shape relations between Native American tribal governments and neighboring local governments. More broadly, this project speaks to the ways that social disadvantage shapes local intergovernmental relations, and how institutional arrangements can subsequently alter those relations. With tribal-local relations, historical circumstances have produced institutions that can offset social disadvantage. This project assesses the bargaining resources that tribal governments gain through those institutions. Political science has long been concerned with the ways that social disadvantage translates into political marginalization in local government-usually, strong voices are amplified, weak voices are diminished in local politics. Scholars have been equally interested in the ways that institutions and federal interventions structure local politics, and have often documented how these arrangements can attenuate social disadvantage in a region. This study addresses both literatures by examining how institutions and federal interventions, in special circumstances, can counteract social disadvantage in local politics. While there is much to be learned from the scholarship that has documented how those with power become even more powerful, it is also important to understand how politically weak groups marshal and deploy those resources that they have at hand. Through the intensive study of six tribal governments and their neighboring authorities, this project identifies how the differing circumstances of tribal governments cause tribal-local relations to vary. Specifically, this analysis examines how differences in federal interventions, tribal governing institutions, and tribal resources affect tribal-local interactions. These findings illuminate how tribal activists can parlay their institutional circumstances into a more powerful Native American voice in local politics.