Some Notes on Political Theory and American Indian Values: The Case of the Muscogee Creeks

The study of American Indian tribal politics and intergovernmental relations still remains quite marginalized in political science. Some law schools are better than others in their Indian law course offerings. Historians contribute to what is termed Indian history, though much of that bypasses Indian perspectives on history. In keeping with its early interests in tribes and aboriginals, anthropology has a larger literature on American Indians than most disciplines. Under the anthropological umbrella, archaeology, kinship studies, and linguistics come closer than other academic investigations to a philo-sophical analysis of Indian values that takes Indian thinking seriously. In spite of a considerable literature on Indian worldview, including John G. Neihardt’s Black Elk Speaks, Paul Radin’s Autobiography of A Winnebago, and Leo W. Simmons’s Sun Chief: The Autobiography of a Hopi Indian, few attempt to capture the inner worlds of Indian life.