Bøger af David H. DeJong

A biographical sketch of each head of Indian affairs between 1786 and 2021, including each commissioner's political philosophy.

Fascinating excerpts from government documents, court decisions, letters from commissioners of Indian affairs, and eyewitness accounts trace the white man''s effort over the years to educate and assimilate Native Americans into the Euro-American culture. Beginning with a description of Indian education before contact, DeJong''s highly informative and readable selections dramatize a struggle that continues today-a struggle ultimately aimed at the control of a people. From the first tentative efforts of the missionaries, to the successful schools of the Five Civilized Tribes, to the shocking inhumanity of the boarding school era, these readings reveal in minute detail the dark past of Indian miseducation. The reader will come to understand how decades of cultural ignorance on the part of white society has affected the past, present, and future of today''s tribal nations.

By examining the work of the Indian affairs commissioners and their assistant secretaries, DeJong gives new insight into how American federal Indian policy has evolved and been shaped by the social, political, and cultural winds of the day.

When it comes to American Indian treaties, the American polity too often forgets the realities of history. Prevailing perceptions are often not only inaccurate but also premised on outright falsehoods. This volume examines intertribal treaties and treaty-making and provides understanding of both the agreements and the diplomatic protocols in which they were enmeshed.

Plagues, Politics, and Policy is an overview of the major health challenges confronting American Indians and Alaska Natives over the past fifty years and is a case study of the federal government''s attempt to provide medical services to a categorical group of people in the United States. While it is not a detailed analysis of what socialized healthcare should or should not look like, it does examine the major social and political issues affecting the delivery of health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives. This book addresses broad policy questions, such as whether or not American Indians and Alaska Natives have received better healthcare since the Indian medical service transferred from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the Public Health Service in 1955. In the initial decades of Public Health Service control of IHS, the problems of infectious diseases were largely eliminated, but they have been replaced by new challenges which will require IHS and tribal leaders to work together to come up with solutions. Many American Indians and Alaska Natives also face public health challenges rooted in the social and political history of the federal Indian relationship. In this book, DeJong provides a path to improving the future of health care for American Indians and Alaska Natives.