Hollow Justice: A History of Indigenous Claims in the United States by David E. Wilkins (review)

David E. Wilkins has delivered yet another invaluable resource for students and scholars of indigenous claims, federal Indian policy, and the asymmetrical relationship that has persisted between the United States and Native nations. Divided into eight chapters, Wilkins’s book traces the history of indigenous claims from the US Court of Claims to a special three-chapter treatment of the Indian Claims Commission, to the Cobell case, and a final chapter that identifies opportunities and limitations for pursuing indigenous claims in the 21st century.

Wilkins’s expertise in federal Indian law, policy, and history evokes the legacy of his professor, Vine Deloria Jr. Grounded in jurisprudence and thorough historical research, Wilkins advances our critical analyses of the factors that have shaped this very peculiar field in law and policy. Peculiar, that is, in relation to the manner in which all other claims have been litigated and settled in the history of the United States. Wilkins raises a number of thought-provoking questions, such as: Even though they were eligible to participate, why did the Bureau of Indian Affairs (bia) fail to notify the Eastern Tribes about the establishment of the Indian Claims Commission? Why have the federal courts been allowed to create new legal doctrines or redefine existing ones in order to deny Native peoples any recovery under the law? How did the Indian Claims Commission morph from Congress’s stated intent to establish a commission into becoming a court? Why are Natives’ claims cases the only claims that have “offsets?” And finally, should indigenous claims be litigated or should they be negotiated? As Wilkins demonstrates over and over, the indigenous peoples of the United States have seldom received “equal treatment under the law.”

For scholars interested in the Great Plains, there are myriad examples drawn from this region—the homeland of dozens of Native Nations. In particular, Wilkins considers individual cases involving the Poncas, Winnebagos, Turtle Mountain Chippewas, Sisseton Wahpetons, Cheyennes, Lakotas, Blackfeet, Otoes and Missourias, and Osages. And even though the class action suit that bears her name included 500,000 other Native claimants, Elouise Pepion Cobell of the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana is given her due credit for providing leadership and persistence in this landmark claim settled in 2010. Wilkins’s documentation and analysis of the Cobell case is excellent, but what is even more valuable is the context he provides for this very complex case.

When I first received this assignment, I was skeptical there was enough material to warrant a book-length treatment of a subject already covered in the seminal work Irredeemable America: The Indians’ Estate and Land Claims (1985), edited by Imre Sutton. While there is some overlap, I highly recommend Wilkins’s book. His consummate scholarship examines indigenous claims through a different lens, updates the literature, and offers a useful framework to consider indigenous claims in the past, present, and future.