Legal Mobilization, Rights Claims, and Federal Indian Policy Reform

人们常常认为，少数群体在联邦法院争取权利比在立法程序中争取权利更容易成功。然而，美国印第安人仍然是美国最贫困的群体，他们在最高法院的败诉率超过75%。 因此，许多律师和倡导者鼓励印第安民族寻求立法而不是司法解决方案，以解决困扰印第安人国家的问题，尽管人们对美洲印第安人和印第安民族在政治进程中的表现知之甚少。 本研究通过考察美国565个印第安民族如何、何时以及如何成功地利用政治程序来改变法律，开始填补我们知识中的这一空白。 它集中在印度国家？对1975年至2011年期间提出和颁布的相关法案的支持或反对，并确定这种支持或反对是否导致颁布了有利于印第安人的联邦政策。 案例研究，从定量研究的趋势中选择，并使用档案数据和新的人种学研究开发，补充立法听证会的初步定量分析，以更好地评估印第安民族使用的各种立法战略和这些战略的成功。的研究结果将为法律的学者、执业律师、法律改革者和立法倡导者提供一个更加细致入微和全面的理解，即代表性不足的社区如何利用各种机构和策略来影响有利于他们的法律和政策的制定。

It is often assumed that minority groups seeking to claim rights are more successful in federal courts than when working through the legislative process. Yet, American Indians, which remain the most impoverished group in the United States, lose in the Supreme Court over 75% of the time. As a result, many lawyers and advocates have encouraged Indian nations to pursue legislative rather than judicial solutions to problems plaguing Indian country, even though little is actually known about how American Indians and Indian nations fare in the political process. This study begins to fill this gap in our knowledge by examining how, when, and with what success the 565 Indian nations in the United States use the political process to change the law. It focuses on Indian nations? support or opposition for relevant bills introduced and enacted between 1975 and 2011, and determines whether such support or opposition led to the enactment of federal policies beneficial to Indians. Case studies, selected from trends in the quantitative study and developed using archival data and new ethnographic research, supplement the initial quantitative analysis of legislative hearings to better assess the variety of legislative strategies used by Indian nations and the success of those strategies.The study?s findings will provide legal scholars, practicing lawyers, law reformers, and legislative advocates with a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of how underrepresented communities might use various institutions and strategies to influence the enactment of laws and policies favorable to them.