In an auditorium in Belcourt, North Dakota, on a chilly October day
in 1932, Robert Bruce and his fellow tribal citizens held the
political fate of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in
their hands. Bruce, and the others, had been asked to adopt a
tribal constitution, but he was unhappy with the document, as it
limited tribal governmental authority. However, white authorities
told the tribal nation that the proposed constitution was a
necessary step in bringing a lawsuit against the federal government
over a long-standing land dispute. Bruce's choice, and the choice
of his fellow citizens, has shaped tribal governance on the
reservation ever since that fateful day.
In this book, Keith Richotte Jr. offers a critical examination of
one tribal nation's decision to adopt a constitution. By asking why
the citizens of Turtle Mountain voted to adopt the document despite
perceived flaws, he confronts assumptions about how tribal
constitutions came to be, reexamines the status of tribal
governments in the present, and offers a fresh set of questions as
we look to the future of governance in Native America and
beyond.