[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 tribal institutions; significant Supreme Court rulings provided the basis for the government's absolute power over Indians. Congress has pursued vacillating policies ranging from the treaty-making period through removal and relocation, allotment and assimilation, to reorganization and finally self-determination. Executive branch and paternalistic bureaucratic wardship have weakened tribal institutions.

The story is told in a direct, nonpolemical, but profoundly convincing manner that leads one to the conclusion that federal policy has often been guided by the ethnocentric belief that Indians should be encouraged to adopt the values and civic ethic of white America and that similarity, not diversity, characterizes Indian tribal institutions and values. Federal intrusion into tribal governance has had the effect of rendering tribal self-government dormant, weakening tribal courts, and eroding adherence to tribal customs and religious rituals. In the area of tribal criminal justice, federal preemption of serious crimes has stripped tribes of the authority to deal with much criminal conduct.

Because reservation Indians are subject not only to tribal, state, and federal governments but also to shifting congressional policy and the legalistic maze created by treaties, federal laws, court opinions, and tribal constitutions, the task of rendering complexity to an acceptable level of simplicity and clarity is a major challenge. Deloria and [and his coauthor Clifford M.] Lytle have succeeded. Subjects such as the concepts of Indian country, tribal criminal and civil justice, and self-government are splendidly described. It is argued that the concepts of tribal sovereignty and Indian country are now merely backdrops against which federal preemption, constitutional rights of Indians, and other policy issues are examined.

Deloria and Lytle not only examine contemporary Indian judicial institutions; they also evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. Other topics dealt with include legal representation and defense of Indian rights, Indian legal interest groups, and current issues regarding voting, criminal defendants' rights, religious freedom, and entitlement to basic educational and social services.

In sum, Deloria and Lytle have compellingly presented a strong case that the weakening of tribal self-government and traditional customs and values has been fostered by the in-sensitivity and lack of understanding underlying federal policy with respect to tribal governance. Federal policy since 1961 has been somewhat more enlightened. The success of this book is that it untangles the complexities of the evolution of the Indian judicial system in a manner that lay and professional readers will find engrossing.