A Nation Within: Navajo Land and Economic Development

by Ezra Rosser

Overview

In A Nation Within, Ezra Rosser explores the connection between land-use patterns and development in the Navajo Nation. Roughly the size of Ireland or West Virginia, the Navajo reservation has seen successive waves of natural resource-based development over the last century: grazing and over-grazing, oil and gas, uranium, and coal; yet Navajos continue to suffer from high levels of unemployment and poverty. Rosser shows the connection between the exploitation of these resources and the growth of the tribal government before turning to contemporary land use and development challenges. He argues that, in addition to the political challenges associated with any significant change, external pressures and internal corruption have made it difficult for the tribe to implement land reforms that could help provide space for economic development that would benefit the Navajo Nation and Navajo tribal members.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108996150
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/07/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Ezra Rosser is Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law where he teaches Federal Indian Law, Property Law, Land Use, and Poverty Law. A graduate of Yale, Harvard, and the University of Cambridge, Ezra is a non-Indian who grew up, in part, on the Navajo Nation.

Table of Contents

Preface: 1. Introduction; 2. The Navajo nation; 3. A new and old deal for Navajos: Oil and sheep; 4. War production and growing pains: uranium and coal; 5. Alternative environmental paths; 6. Golf balls and discretionary funds; 7. Improving tribal governance; 8. Locally grounded development; 9. Reclaiming the land; 10. Creating space for experimentation; 11. Sovereign assertions; 12. Conclusion; Acknowledgments.

Editorial Reviews

'Rosser's book provides an insightful examination of the history, laws and forces, both internal and external, that have shaped the Navajo Nation, along with a powerful assessment the Nation's future. With detailed attention to the broader historical, legal, and policy context of indigenous peoples in the United States, this work will be of wide interest to scholars, students, practitioners, and the general public.' S. James Anaya, Professor and Dean Emeritus, University of Colorado Law School, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and author of Indigenous Peoples in International Law (2004)

'Navajo land may look lifeless to the outsider, but A Nation Within shows that the land contains the wealth and hopes of a powerful nation. Rosser provides a much needed analysis of Navajo Nation's land rights and challenges misconceptions of the Diné peoples' relationship to their land.' Wendy S. Greyeyes (Diné), Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Native American Studies, University of New Mexico

'Rosser's tightly woven study examines the century-long Diné (Navajo) struggle to find a practical balance within the often conflicting and competitive aspects of exercised sovereignty – political, territorial, and economic. Hard lessons learned while negotiating a path through these ongoing tensions must be applied if the Diné hope to achieve mature and deliberative self-determination in the next hundred years – and beyond.' David E. Wilkins (Lumbee), Professor of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond, and author of The Navajo Political Experience

'Ezra Rosser is a treasure. A Nation Within is a sensitive and provocative account of the Navajo Nation, as a government, and the Diné people, as a complex community of real people who have faced (and are still facing) challenges both external and internal to the Nation with incredible resilience. Rosser does not mince words. His account is not romantic. He ventures directly into the honest, on-the-ground messiness inherent when governments have to make hard choices – as the Navajo Nation has done time again, including in making the controversial environmental and economic trade-offs that Rosser so deftly describes. Rosser's account will change how we think not only about tribal land governance but also about the potential for more localized land reform and development. This is essential reading in our current political moment. There is much Americans can learn from this story of the Navajo Nation and from Rosser himself.' Jessica A. Shoemaker, Professor of Law, University of Nebraska College of Law

From the Publisher