American Indian treaties and the lower federal courts: A guide to treaty citations from opinions of the lower United States federal court system

In a previous study, it was found that 209 of 375 recognized American Indian treaties have been cited in opinions of the United States Supreme Court (Bernholz, 2004). This guide now identifies – through 246 citations from 142 cases between the years 1863 and 2005 – 85 treaties found only in opinions of the lower Federal Court system. In addition, this investigation uncovered another treaty referenced by the Supreme Court. The remaining 80 instruments have not appeared in opinions of the federal courts (4, 5 and 7).     

Adjusting American Indian treaties: A guide to supplemental article and supplementary treaty citations from opinions of the federal, state, and territorial court systems

Supplemental articles and supplementary treaties were used as tools to modify American Indian treaties. In general, supplemental articles were adjustments to the parameters of a treaty, frequently made as quickly as the same – or the next – day of negotiations, whereas the task of a supplementary treaty was to affect the conditions created in a previous treaty(s).As the law of the land, these materials have been referenced in the opinions of the federal, state, and territorial court systems. This article identifies those 80 documents – a combination of 39 initial treaties and their 41 supplements – cited in the opinions of 101 cases between 1831 and 2000 that bind together these instruments, their modifications, and their application within these various venues.     

American Indian treaties in the Courts of Claims: A guide to treaty citations from opinions of the United States Courts of Claims

Since 1855, the federal Courts of Claims have provided relief for citizens in cases against the United States. President Abraham Lincoln, in his first annual message in 1861, declared his support for such a process: “It is as much the duty of government to render prompt justice against itself, in favor of citizens, as it is to administer the same between private individuals” [Message of the President. (1862). Appendix to The Congressional Globe, 37th Congress, 2d session, 3 December 1861, p. 2].     

Loci sigilli and American Indian treaties: Reflections on the creation of volume 2 of Kappler's Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties

The presence–or absence–of locus sigilli “[L.S.]” or “[SEAL]” indicators, to validate the signatures in those texts of American Indian treaties collated by Charles J. Kappler in his Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, is examined. The results of this inquiry suggest that Kappler spent far more time examining the original treaty documents than Deloria and DeMallie proposed in their Documents of American Indian Diplomacy: Treaties, Agreements, and Conventions, 1775–1979.     

The federal depository library program in transition: A perspective at the turn of a century

The basic legal framework covering government information procurement, production, and dissemination has been in place for over 100 years. Congress is currently developing revisions to Title 44 of the United State Code in order to reform this system. Fundamental principles of public access to government information, embodied in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), must guide these revisions. The strategic planning process, currently underway by federal agencies, must give due consideration to the entire life cycle of government information, particularly the dissemination and public access responsibilities.     

The lady goes to court: Paperbacks and censorship

Arguing that the First Amendment does not allow for the suppression of ideas, constitutional scholars and historians have long been concerned about legal attempts to censor books in the United States. In this article Kenneth C. Davis explores the complex relationship between pivotal court cases on censorship, congressional committees, various movements, and secular and religious organizations in attempts to curtail the publication and distribution of certain types of books in this nation. Davis's trenchant analyses enrich our understanding of censorship and the history of the book in the United States. Most of the publishers engaged in this sordid competition operate in the field of cheap reprints selling [for] from 10 to 75 cents. —Reports of the Select Committee on Current Pornographic Materials (1952)It is not so much the publisher's right to publish that needs protection as the reader's right to read. —Douglas M. Black, President, American Book Publishers Council (1952) Kenneth C. Davis is the author of the definitiveTwo-Bit Culture: The Paperbacking of America in which this article originally appeared.     

Collection evaluation: A practical guide to the literature

This is an evaluative summary of the literature on assessment of academic library collections for working collection development librarians. It reviews the general literature on collection evaluation and the principal methodological approaches, including application of standards, use of checklists, verification studies, citation analysis, and use studies. Strengths and weaknesses of each approach are identified. The critical role of the experience and expertise of the evaluator and his/her objectives is stressed.     

Eyapaha for today: American Indian radio in the Dakotas

American Indian radio serves the role of “eyapaha,”; the voice in the community that ties people together across the vast prairies of North and South Dakota. Local news, tribal council meetings, public service announcements, birth and death notices, and indigenous music are essential programming on the reservations, where Indian people seek to maintain and enhance their tribal cultures and languages. This article compares the six American Indian radio stations in the Dakotas, examining their facilities, budgets, programming, and governance.     

The right to know: Public access to federal information in the 1980s

This article is based on a symposium held at the University of California, Berkeley, and sponsored by the Library, University of California, Berkeley; the Librarians Association of the University of California (Berkeley Division); and the School of Library and Information Studies, University of California, Berkeley. The author examines government information controls in the context of the constitutional and statutory tradition of open access to government information in the United States. He discusses the restrictive climate in which the Reagan administration views public access and warns that restrictive national security policies may actually curtail economic growth, retard defense programs, and undermine the Constitution.     

Standardized American Indians: The “Names of Indian tribes and bands” list from the Office of Indian Affairs

The inconsistent spelling of American Indian tribal names at the end of the nineteenth century led in part to the development within the Office of Indian Affairs of an array of 270 standardized identifiers, ranging from Absaroka to Zuñi. These efforts paralleled the simultaneous improvement of a large suite of relevant terms by the United States Board on Geographic Names. Both compilations were included in style manuals published by the Government Printing Office beginning in 1900 and approved for the use of federal agencies. In 1903 and 1904, Charles J. Kappler, in the preparation of his multi-volume Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, made particular use of this orthography when he created new individual titles for the recognized treaties between the federal government and the Indian Nations. Even with these coordinated attempts, however, versions of the “Names of Indian tribes and bands” register during the last century suffered both exclusions from, and an addition to, the original document from the Office of Indian Affairs.     

Blood-Speak: Ward Churchill and the Racialization of American Indian Identity

After publishing a controversial essay on 9/11, Professor Ward Churchill's scholarship and personal identity were subjected to a hostile public investigation. Evidence that Churchill had invented his American Indian identity created vehemence among many professors and tribal leaders who dismissed Churchill because he was not a “real Indian.” This essay examines the discourses of racial authenticity employed to distance Churchill from tribal communities and American Indian scholarship. Responses to Churchill's academic and ethnic self-identification have retrenched a racialized definition of tribal identity defined by a narrow concept of blood. Employing what I term blood-speak, Churchill's opponents harness a biological concept of race that functions as an instrument of exclusion and a barrier to coalitional politics.     

Approaches to meta-analysis: A guide for LIS researchers

Meta-analysis, a statistical operation used to combine results from independent studies, has been applied widely in medicine, psychology, and business among other disciplines, but has had limited application in LIS research. To introduce it in LIS research, this article offers examples from a meta-analytic study on factors affecting information needs among cancer patients to explain the literature search, criteria for inclusion of studies, data gathering, and statistics related to effect sizes in meta-analysis. Three popular approaches to meta-analysis, the details of the approach used by the author, and the interpretation of results in terms of mean effect sizes that represent strength of the observed effect of variables are also explained.