SOURCE: A review of American Indians, American Justice, in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 476, November, 1984, pp. 186-87.

In the following review, Kerr praises American Indians, American Justice as a highly readable examination of the United States federal government's policies concerning American Indians and their effects on Native American governmental and judicial institutions.

This admirable book [American Indians, American Justice] analyzes the roots of Indian tribal government and justice and how they have been modified by the American legal system. It asks the important question, How much of Indian self-government and traditional Indian culture and values can survive, given the pressure toward adapting Indian institutions to the values of contemporary American society?

Both authors are lawyer-political scientists and their principal interest is studying the pervasive influence of the white man's political system on the Indian tribes. The federal government has greatly affected...