Professor Grant Christensen, a nationally recognized expert in federal Indian Law, has published his newest essay, The Return to Autochthonous Law, in Vol. 93 of the University of Chicago Law Review.
The piece is a review of Indigenous Governance by David Wilkins, but uses Wilkins’ text to make an original contribution to the field of federal Indian Law. A nationally recognized federal Indian Law expert, Professor Christensen argues that federal Indian Law is seeing the emergence of a fourth wave of scholarship that recenters the conversation from tribal self-determination as a means of decolonization to one embracing the autochthonous powers of tribes themselves. It is distinct from earlier waves of scholarship because it does not position tribal powers within the tribal-federal framework but recognizes tribal sovereignty as distinct and subject to change at the direction of tribal leadership. It furthers a national movement by Indigenous law scholars to engage directly with the inherent powers of tribal governments instead of trying legal forms involving tribes to the existing structured embedded in federal law.