Democratic Deficits and Developments in Indigenous Politics

Session Submission Type: Created Panel

Session Description

Despite the aspirational promises of a democratic society, the American state – founded on expansionary displacement and violence – has never served Native American individuals and nations well. As political sovereigns acknowledged to have legal roots different from those of the United States, Native American nations have often been seen as a democratic anomaly to theorists and as a target for powerful social forces eager to dissolve their existence and claim their lands. These long-standing theoretical and democratic deficits continue to endure into the present. As we consider contemporary forms of democratic backsliding, we should keep in view these long-term deficits and what they reveal about the persistent patterns of our institutions.

This panel examines the ways in which Native nations and individuals seek to navigate the often-hostile terrain of American democratic institutions, examining a diverse set of mechanisms through which they seek to render American democracy less politically dangerous. The papers on the panel consider five distinct ways in which Native individuals and nations seek to influence democratic political outcomes. First, Jones and Brennan focus on Native on-reservation voting patterns, with particular attention to the structural impediments to Native turnout. Second, Blasingame examines the ways in which Native members of Congress seek to open space within the policy environment in which their nations are enmeshed. Third, Delaney examines federal consultation requirements with Native nations, demonstrating how different models facilitate more or less authentic agreement-seeking between Federal agencies and tribes. Fourth, Ng examines epistemic injustices in the Australian Supreme Court's adjudication between three Indigenous claimants in the Finniss River Land Claim. Finally, Lawrence examines the relationship between Native political efforts and social movement organizing intended to repair democratic deficits across racial, cultural, and international boundaries.

Taken together, these papers show the ways in which Native nations and individuals seek to wrestle persistently recalcitrant American institutions in more democratic forms that may, with luck and persistence, eventually fulfill the promise of our democratic aspirations.

Sub Unit

• Related Groups / Indigenous Studies Network

Individual Presentations

• Native American Voter Turnout: Conceptualizing the Turnout Gap on Tribal Lands - Chelsea Jones, Brennan Center for Justice; Coryn Grange, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law

• Let the Proxies Hit the Floor: Indigenous Bill Sponsorship in Congress - Elise Blasingame, University of Georgia

• Lip Service or Recommitment? An Analysis of Three Forms of Tribal Consultation - Dani Delaney, Queen's University

• Limits of Epistemic Injustices: Reconsidering the Finniss River Land Claim (1981) - Qian Qian Ng, University of Michigan

• Recognizing Indigenous Sovereignty in Social Change Movements - Bonita Lawrence, York University

Chair

• Burke Hendrix University of Oregon

Discussant

• Richard C. Witmer Creighton University