David R. M. Beck centers bribery in a new history of the federal Indian termination era. Termination, in theory and in practice, was designed to sever relations between tribal nations, their land, and the federal government. It often unilaterally abrogated the federal-tribal trust relationship, making Native nations vulnerable to private interests. The termination era affected no two tribes the same way, and Beck argues that bribery helps us understand why.In part 1, Beck offers an overview of federal termination policy that considers how words such as freedom and emancipation were strategically deployed to convince stakeholders that ending the federal trust relationship with tribal nations was in their best interest (xix). Yet Beck shows a different reality: Tribal nations who were terminated became even more dependent on local, state, and federal aid than they had been prior to termination.Beck organizes parts 2, 3, and 4 thematically, with each focusing on two tribal nations who shared similar experiences with termination. Part 2 centers the Menominee and the Klamath, who possessed “‘extremely valuable timber lands’” when policymakers began calling for their termination (100). In both cases, the federal government withheld compensation owed to the tribes until they “consented” to termination. Part 3 discusses the Three Affiliated Tribes and the Seneca Nation, who sought compensation for lands flooded by a dam built without their authorization, which the federal government attempted to tie to termination. In both instances, tribal leaders recognized that the federal government was “‘bribing us to accept termination’” and refused to be bought out of their federal trust relationship (120). Part 4 considers the cases of the “mixed-blood” Utes and the Colville. After the Utes secured a multimillion-dollar settlement for lands taken in the 1950s, “full-blood” members allowed the federal government to terminate its relationship with “mixed-blood” Utes, thus maintaining their status as a tribal nation by terminating their own relatives. The last chapter draws heavily from Bartering with the Bones of Their Dead (2012) by Laurie Arnold (Colville) to bring Arnold’s work into conversation with the other cases presented in this volume.The strengths of Bribed with Our Own Money lie not only in the number of case studies that Beck has assembled in one volume but also in Beck’s decades-long career as a community-engaged scholar. Whenever possible, Beck borrows the words that Indigenous leaders used to describe their experiences. Even the book’s title is inspired by Menominee tribal member William Grignon, who explained that the federal government had successfully bribed his people with their own money (xv). Beck also gives careful attention to tribal factions and political tensions that predated and outlasted the termination era, offering a model for scholars who attend to conflict and cooperation in their work. Policies, names, dates, and interests are often presented in quick succession, which sometimes makes it difficult to follow the author’s analysis. Beck does, however, always return to his main point: The federal government used the promise of money and the threat of termination to force tribal nations to consent to pro-American policies at the expense of their own people’s social, political, and economic well-being.
Zada Ballew (Thu,) studied this question.