Linking Arms Together ─ American Indian Treaty Visions of Law and Peace, 1600-1800

Challenging the perception of Native American as passive receivers of European laws and institutions before US independence, Williams (law and American Indian studies, U. of Arizona) surveys Indian treaty making to argue that they were in fact active participants in crafting a shared legal culture. He shows how they drew on their own traditions of diplomacy to resist and even influence the conduct of European law. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Robert A. Williams, Jr., is Professor of Law and American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona. A member of the Lumbee Indian tribe of North Carolina, he is author of the award-winning The American Indian in Western Legal Thought (1990).