Description: Now in its fifth edition, The Navajo Nation Political Experience, explores the political developments of the Diné people, with a focus on governance structures, leaders, and the dynamics of political participation in the Navajo Nation.
Brief description: David E. Wilkins is E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professor in leadership studies at University of Richmond. A citizen of the Lumbee Nation of North Carolina, Wilkins earned his PhD in political science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His academic work concentrates on Native politics and governance, with particular attention to the transformations that Indigenous governments have both coercively and voluntarily engaged in from pre-colonial times to the present. Wilkins in the author or editor of numerous books, including mostly recently Documents of Native American Political Development: 1933 to Present; Red Prophet: The Punishing Intellectualism of Vine Deloria, Jr.; American Indian Politics and the American Political System, fourth edition; Dismembered: Native Disenrollment and the Battle for Human Rights; The Navajo Political Experience, fourth edition; and Hollow Justice: A History of Indigenous Claims in the United States.
Review Quotes:
"Wilkins's The Navajo Political Experience is a comprehensive treatment of the contemporary Navajo Nation's governing structure and politics. The author overviews the historical and pre-colonial foundations of the Navajo people, the impact of colonization and the history of federal Indian policy to provide context to and historical understanding of the evolution of the Navajo nation's tribal sovereignty and internal self-governance. Part I situates the Navajo political experience within the broader story of the U.S. legal framework, while keeping the emphasis on this "nation within a nation." In Part II, the author turns to the governing structure of the Navajo nation with a review of its institutions and local governance before turning, in Part III to its internal political dynamics. The book is a dedicated treatise on the Navajo government and political experience that treats the nation on its own terms while still situating it within the broader story of U.S.-tribal relations. Throughout, the author emphasizes contemporary issues of governance and self-determination that is often missing in discussions of the First Nations. It is a must read for scholars interested in tribal sovereignty." --Lisa Parshall, Daemen College
""This textbook is the most in-depth and comprehensive look at a single Native nation that is unlike existing material in the field." --Thaddieus Conner, New Mexico State University ""This book is a great fit if you want to offer your students an example of how tribal governments work but don't feel you can teach it on your own, or want to have readings to accompany it. And there'll be no "stump the chump" moments in class or other types of Q&A that throw you off balance: if a student has a highly specific question that's relevant to their particular area of interest, you have a reference guide."" --Laura E. Evans, University of Washington