Planning the American Indian reservation : from theory to empowerment

Book

Planning the American Indian reservation : from theory to empowerment / Nicholas Christos Zaferatos ; foreword by Brian Cladoosby.

Zaferatos, Nicholas C. (Nicholas Christos), (author.).

Summary:

American Indian reservation planning is one of the most challenging and poorly understood specializations within the American planning profession. Charged with developing a strategy to protect irreplaceable tribal homelands that have been repeatedly diminished over the ages through unjust public policy actions, it is also one of the most imperative. For centuries tribes have faced historical bigotry, political violence, and an unrelenting resistance to self-governance. Aided by a comprehensive reservation planning strategy, tribes can create the community they envisioned for themselves, independent of outside forces. In Planning the American Indian Reservation, Zaferatos presents a holistic and practical approach to explaining the practice of Native American planning. The book unveils the complex conditions that tribes face by examining the historical, political, legal, and theoretical dimensions of the tribal planning situation in order to elucidate the context within which reservation planning occurs. Drawing on more than thirty years of professional practice, Zaferatos presents several case studies demonstrating how effective tribal planning can alter the nature of the political landscape and help to rebalance the uneven relationships that have been formed between tribal governments and their nontribal political counterparts. Tribal planning's overarching objective is to assist tribes as they transition from passive objects of historical circumstances to principal actors in shaping their future reservation communities.

Record details

ISBN: 0815633939
ISBN: 9780815633938
ISBN: 0815633939
Physical Description: xxiv, 345 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press, 2015.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Introduction and overview: the work of tribal planning -- Part I. The setting for Native American reservation planning -- An overview of Federal Indian policy and the evolution of the tribal political community -- The context of tribal sovereignty -- The tribal cultural community -- Part II. Theories and models empowering tribal planning -- The tribal political economy and its underdevelopment -- Identifying oppositional forces in tribal planning -- Part III. The dimensions of tribal planning -- An adaptive and contingent model of tribal planning -- Part IV. Case studies in mediating tribal planning relationships -- Mediating tribal-state conflicts: experiences from Washington State -- Regional pluralism: the Skagit Valley experience -- Appropriate technologies and the Native American smokehouse -- Environmental justice on the Swinomish Indian Reservation -- Conclusion.