Common and Contested Ground: A Human and Environmental History of the Northwestern Plains by Theodore Binnema (review)

ter,land, and fish; (5) thedoctrine of implied re peals,which indifferent understandings can limit or enable theUnited States government's power to abrogate treaties; (6) thedisclaimer clauses in stateenabling acts and constitutions, which could and, in the authors' view, should be applied to reclaim thefederalgovernment's role as the lone constitutional authority to deal with the tribes; and (7) thedoctrine of sovereignimmunity, which is recognized by state and federal governments but is imperfectlyrecognized in the Indian na tions. Each chapterexamines how the legaldoctrine at issue has evolved over time through the ac tions, interactions, and decisions of officials in differentbranches of federal and state govern ments and compares that to how the authors believe thedoctrine should have developed, ifthe people involvedhad stayedtruetoan understand ingof the inherent sovereigntyofAmerican In dian nations. History offers more than just ex amples ofdoctrinal failure; italso contains a few good examples of the right way to understand sovereigntyand tomake law and policy. Wilkins and Lomawaima ground their counter-under standingofdoctrinal issues in thehistorical nar rative, too, whenever they can. For example, they conclude that the historical record shows that legal ownership of the lands ofAmerica resided fullyin thehands of the Indian nations and did not pass upon "discovery" to European nations, despite doctrinal confusion to thecontrary. Uneven Ground would be an excellent start ingpoint foranyone interested in studying the historical development of the central doctrines of Indian law and policy or inunderstanding the elements of current controversies inAmerican Indian law and policy. The authors' advocacy of a particular view helps sharpen theanalysis.This istrue with thefollowing caveats,however. First, this isnot a book for serious scholars or experts inhistory or law; it isbetter geared toward in troducing undergraduates to the history of American Indian law and policy.Amore sophis ticated look at the subject can be found inbooks by Robert Williams (especially The American Indian in Western Legal Thought), Francis Paul Prucha, CharlesWilkinson, andWilcomb Wash burn and in the revisedHandbook on Federal Indian Law. Second, the strengthof thebook? its strong advocacy of a particular perspective on how an understanding of sovereigntyshould lead to conclusions about various issues? is also a weakness when the complexities of the concepts and history are glossed over to serve the conclusions. Common and Contested Ground: A Human and Environmental History of the Northwestern Plains By Theodore Binnema University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2001. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. 279 pages. $29.95 cloth. Reviewed by Ken Coates University ofSaskatchewan, Saskatoon THEODORE BlNNEMA SET OUT tOWritea comprehensive history of the northwest ern plains, focusing on human interactions and the interplayofhuman and natural phenomena in the region from200A.D. to 1806.The portrait he draws variesdramaticallyfrom theratherstaid image of a vast, thinlypopulated land inhabited by a small number of American Indian groups, 282 OHQ vol. 104, NO. 2 influenced by a handful of European explorers and traders,and dominated bymassive herds of buffalo. Binnema argues that the biological wealth of the region, particularly the buffalo herds, attracted Aboriginal peoples, sparked con flict over resources, and encouraged trade between American Indian groups and between Indians and newcomers. The result, he suggests, was a com plex, interwoven social environmentmarked by indigenous innovation, biological change, and intricatesocial, economic, and political relation ships. Binnema has provided a rich and nuanced examination of theregion.His central argument is thatnewcomers were not thedefining feature of life on thenorthwesternplains inthisera. While some Europeans had important relationships with some of theAmerican Indian peoples in the region,Binnema argues that"we cannot hope to understand Indian-Euroamerican relations ad equatelyunlesswe attempt toexplain them inthe context of broader Indian interactions. Any middle ground between indigenous peoples and newcomers developed within the common and contested ground" (p. 9).He challenges thestan dard historical interpretationsby emphasizing interethnic relations more than the standard Indian-newcomer interactionand by drawing on archaeological, anthropological, and ethno graphic literature toproduce a nicelydrawn analy sisof early indigenous cultures in the region.He does a particularly effectivejob ofdocumenting and explaining thecomplexitiesof interethnic and intraethnicrelations, managing in theprocess to examine both broad socioeconomic and cultural trendsand the specific impactof individuals and pivotal events. The book unfolds in a generally thematic fashion.The firsttwo chapters assess thenature of early indigenous lifein theregion,drawing...