Sovereign Nations or Reservations? Indian Economies

The lifestyle of American Indians before European settlers arrived several centuries ago is often held up today as a model of environmental sensitivity and communitarian cooperation. But is it really true? In this bold book, Terry Anderson debunks much of the romanticism surrounding American Indian culture. American Indians, he argues, developed forms of property rights, contracts, and market exchanges resembling those used by modern Western cultures.

Anderson further argues that much of the poverty among Indian tribes living on reservations today is due to U.S. government policies that deprive Indians of their property rights and impose collective decision making on them unnaturally. We do a great disservice to Indians, Anderson concludes, by imposing on them not only our bureaucracy but also a romantic image of Indian life that does not square with the historical record.