Introduction: A Reflexive Historiography
I CONTESTING CITIZENSHIP, 1887–1924
1 “My Own Nation” (1899)—Queen Lili‘uokalani
2 “Keep Our Treaties” (1906)—Chitto Harjo
3 “We Can Establish Our Rights” (1913)—Cherokee Freedmen
4 “That the Smaller Peoples May Be Safe” (1918)—Arthur C. Parker
5 “Another Kaiser in America” (1918)—Carlos Montezuma
6 “Our Hearts Are Almost Broken” (1919)—No Heart et al.
7 “I Want to Be Free” (1920)—Porfirio Mirabel
8 “I Am Going to Geneva” (1923)—Deskaheh
9 “It Is Our Way of Life” (1924)—All-Pueblo Council
II RECLAIMING A FUTURE, 1934–1954
10 “As One Indian to Another” (1934)—Henry Roe Cloud
11 “Fooled So Many Times” (1934)—George White Bull and Oliver Prue
12 “Let Us Try a New Deal” (1934)—Christine Galler
14 “We Have Heard Your Talk” (1934)—Joe Chitto
15 “Eliminate This Discrimination” (1941)—Elizabeth and Roy Peratrovich
16 “I Am Here to Keep the Land” (1945)—Martin Cross
17 “We Are Still a Sovereign Nation” (1949)—Hopi Traditionalist Movement
18 “I Had No One to Help Me” (1953)—Jake Herman
19 “We Need a Boldness of Thinking” (1954)—D’Arcy McNickle
III DEMANDING CIVIL RIGHTS OF A DIFFERENT ORDER, 1954–1968
20 “We Are Citizens” (1954)—National Congress of American Indians
21 “This Resolution ‘Gives’ Indians Nothing” (1954)—Helen Peterson and Alice Jemison
22 “We Are Lumbee Indians” (1955)—D. F. Lowry
23 “The Mississippi Choctaws Are Not Going Anywhere” (1960)—Phillip Martin
24 “A Human Right in a Free World” (1961)—Edward Dozier
25 “This Is Not Special Pleading” (1961)—American Indian Chicago Conference
26 “I Can Recognize a Beginning” (1962)—Jeri Cross, Sandra Johnson, and Bruce Wilkie
27 “To Survive as a People” (1964)—Clyde Warrior
28 “We Were Here as Independent Nations” (1965)—Vine Deloria Jr.
29 “Is It Not Right to Help Them Win Their Rights?” (1965)—Angela Russell
30 “We Will Resist” (1965)—Nisqually Nation
31 “I Want to Talk to You a Little Bit about Racism” (1968)—Tillie Walker
32 “A Sickness Which Has Grown to Epidemic Proportions” (1968)—Committee of 100
IV DECLARING CONTINUING INDEPENDENCE, 1969–1994
33 “Our Children Will Know Freedom and Justice” (1969)—Indians of All Tribes
34 “We Are an Honorable People—Can You Say the Same?” (1973)—The Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy
35 “We Have the Power” (1974)—John Trudell
36 “For the Continuing Independence of Native Nations” (1974)—International Indian Treaty Council
37 “For Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms” (1977)—Geneva Declaration
38 “Why Have You Not Recognized Us as Sovereign People Before?” (1977)—Marie Sanchez
39 “Our Red Nation” (1978)—Diné, Lakota, and Haudenosaunee Traditional Leaders
40 “These Are Inherent Rights” (1978)—The Longest Walk Statement
41 “Get the Record Straight” (1987)—James Hena
42 “This Way of Life—The Peyote Way” (1992)—Reuben Snake
43 “Let Catawba Continue to Be Who They Are” (1992)—E. Fred Sanders
44 “Return the Power of Governing” (1994)—Wilma Mankiller
V TESTING THE LIMITS, 1994–2015
45 “We Already Know Our History” (1996)—Armand Minthorn
46 “We Would Like to Have Answers” (2003)—Russell Jim
47 “The Sovereign Expression of Native Self-Determination” (2003)—J. Kēhaulani Kauanui
48 “I Will Not Rest Till Justice Is Achieved” (2005)—Elouise Cobell
49 “An Organization, a Club, or Is It a Nation?” (2007)—Osage Constitutional Reform Testimony
50 “The Gwich’in Are Caribou People” (2011)—Sarah Agnes James
51 “I Want to Work for Economic and Social Justice” (2012)—Susan Allen
52 “I Could Not Allow Another Day of Silence to Continue” (2012)—Deborah Parker
53 “Indian Enough” (2013)—Alex Pearl
54 “We Will Be There to Meet You” (2013)—Armando Iron Elk and Faith Spotted Eagle
55 “Call Me Human” (2015)—Lyla June Johnston