Duane Champagne has long been an exemplary intellectual leader: smart, thoughtful, rigorous, engaged at ground level, a realist with a powerful combination of understanding and passion. These qualities are amply apparent in this often provocative collection of commentaries. He has given us a guidebook for thinking about the challenges facing Native nations and both Native and non-Native policymakers today.

Stephen Cornell

In his clear and lively prose, Duane Champagne explores the many layers of life in modern Indian country. Ever grounded in his deep and true understanding of tribal communities, he addresses key policy issues such as sovereignty and human rights as well as the day-to-day concerns and possibilities in the communities, all the while drawing seamlessly from history, spirituality, philosophy, law, and political science. This is the best book I know on the contemporary Native experience in America.

Charles Wilkinson, University of Colorado Law School; author, Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations