Shaky Ground: How the U.S. Uses the Law to Steal Indigenous Land
This article was published in In These Times magazine in April 2023. Natives protest showy state and federal July 4 plans for the Black Hills. Photo Micah Garen/Getty Images. In Federal Anti-Indian Law: The Legal Entrapment of Indigenous Peoples , Peter d’Errico exposes the capriciousness and hostility with which the U.S. uses the law to apply—or deny—justice to the original peoples of this land. “ When we enter a realm called ‘ federal Indian law’ … we are entering a semantic world created by the United States to control Native peoples and claim their lands,” writes d’Errico, an attorney and professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Despite its confusion and contradictions, federal Indian law — in d’Errico’s terms, “ anti-Indian law” — has long had an unchanging purpose. By destroying Native individuals and communities, it has helped the rich and powerful scoop up vast lands and resources. This landgrab is accomplished in part because what’s typically cal