The everydayness of benders reflecting the physical properties of their elements reminds the authors of the work of the late Jicarilla Apache philosopher V.F. Cordova. Cordova describes “bounded space” as a land base defined by geographic features such as mountains, rivers, deserts, lakes, oceans, and canyons. At the beginning of each Avatar: the Last Airbender ( ATLA ) episode, the audience is reminded: “Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony”. The sequence shows four individuals bending the water, earth, (...) fire, and air elements. The specific bounded spaces of the respective nations are reflected in their people and their benders. The ATLA universe provides narratives that point to Indigenous intergenerational ways of knowing. Within the ATLA universe, the authors witness regular connections with the spirit realm or spirit world. Many Indigenous scholars have explored these connections to the “spirit world” as understood in ATLA. (shrink)

"Wokini, " translated from Lakota, means "seeking a new beginning." On that theme, the famous athlete joins the bestselling author to blend modern therapeutic principles and Native American tradition.

George Sword an Oglala Lakota (1846–1914) learned to write in order to transcribe and preserve his people’s oral narratives. In her book Delphine Red Shirt, also Oglala Lakota and a native speaker, examines the compositional processes of George Sword and shows how his writings reflect recurring themes and story patterns of the Lakota oral tradition. Her book invites further studies in several areas including literature, translation studies and more. My review of her book suggests some ways it (...) could be used as a primary resource book in developing curricula in Indigenous philosophy . (shrink)

Black Elk's Story: Distinguishing Its Lakota Purpose. Julian Rice. Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press, 1991. ISBN 0‐8263‐1262‐4. Cloth. $29.95. Pp. 165.

Neste artigo lanço três tradições umas contra as outras para levantar algumas questões de pesquisa futura sobre a natureza da razão e a razão da natureza. Max Horkheimer e Theodor Adorno, da Escola de Frankfurt, sustentavam que a razão tende a dominar a natureza e que a dominação é parte da essência da razão. Dirijo-me, então, para examinar Aristóteles e aristotélicos contemporâneos, mais precisamente Mary Midgley e Alasdair MacIntyre, para mostar um recurso possível na tradição da filosofia ocidental na qual (...) a razão emerge da natureza. Usando modernos estudos de animais, Midgley e MacIntyre ampliam a visão aristotélica sobre a natureza da razão como parte de nossa natureza animal. Por fim, discuto os Lakotas, Primeina Nação dos povos da América do Norte, que tem uma visão da razão que é o espelho oposto daquela encontrada na modernidade. Essa comparação sugere que dominar a natureza não é essencial à razão. (shrink)

This article examines the juridical force of _karakia_—ritual speech acts within _tikanga Māori_—and their contested recognition in Aotearoa New Zealand’s settler legal order. While _karakia_ function as law-speaking acts that invoke _mana_ and _tapu_ to establish binding obligations, they are often reframed by courts, legislatures, and public institutions as “religion,” “culture,” or “ceremony.” This interpretive reduction exemplifies a broader semiotic violence in which Indigenous juridical practices are acknowledged symbolically while denied juridical authority. Methodologically, the article combines semiotic theory, Māori jurisprudence, (...) and comparative case law to develop a ritual semiotics: an approach that situates juridical authority not only in texts and institutions but also in ritual, orality, and cosmology. Drawing on Austin’s speech act theory, Butler’s account of performativity, and Derrida’s reflections on authority, while grounding analysis in Māori concepts of _mana_ and _tapu_, the article examines case law such as _Takamore v Clarke_ and _Ngāti Apa v Attorney-General_, alongside comparative examples including _Ktunaxa Nation v British Columbia_, the Lakota Sun Dance, and _Yorta Yorta v Victoria_. The article advances three contributions. To Māori law, it affirms _karakia_ as integral acts of juridical authority. To legal semiotics, it develops ritual semiotics, broadening the field beyond textual and institutional codes. To comparative Indigenous law, it identifies a recurring pattern of semiotic violence across settler states. By foregrounding _karakia_ as theory-generating, the article repositions Māori jurisprudence as foundational to a decolonial semiotics of law with implications for global debates on plural legal orders. (shrink)

Everywhere in the world, and in every period of human history, it has been common for energy decisions to be made in an ethically haphazard manner. With growing population pressure and increasing demand for energy, this approach is no longer viable. We believe that decision makers must include ethical considerations in energy decisions more routinely and systematically. To this end, we propose an applied ethics framework that accommodates principles from three classical ethical theories—virtue ethics, deontology, consequentialism, and two Native American (...) ethics (Lakota and Navajo)—all considered from the perspectives of the impacted communities. We illustrate this framework by evaluating five recent energy decisions: the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Navajo Nation’s possible transition from coal to solar, hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania, uranium mining in Virginia, and the construction of the Xiaolangdi Dam in China. An applied ethics framework is preferable to existing ethical analyses because it can serve to sharpen arguments for (un)ethical decisions and action. Rather than treat ethical reasoning as a matter of opinion, we argue that applying ethical principles in a universal and standardized way adds rigor to energy sector decisions by presenting a position available for objective scrutiny. Because our framework identifies which aspects of a targeted action (if any) must adjust to improve ethical merit, it can serve as a practical tool for improving decision-making as we enter a new era of energy transitions. (shrink)

it is surprising to find in the writings of William James (1842–1910) a condescending and stereotypical view of the Native North Americans, which he shared with most of his fellow white Americans at the time. However, James and the Native North Americans did share a holistic view of nature. For example, they abhorred the systematic deforestation of forests. But his view and the white settlers’ view of nature excluded the Native North Americans’ ways of life and living. Most of James’s (...) statements are about the Northern Great Plains Indians, so most of my discussion centers around the Sioux or the D/Lakota accounts of the land and their idea of self. These conflicting perceptions of the white settlers (and James) and... Read More. (shrink)

For centuries, philosophical inquiry into theology and religion was confined to a narrow range of questions about a singular God, the nature of divinity, the origins of creation, and the tension between good and evil, free will and determinism. In our times, it would seem, the conversation has struggled to expand beyond these erstwhile boundaries to embrace diverse traditions, subaltern voices, and even issues that do, or arguably should, concern the proper work of the philosophy of religion. The present review (...) essay appraises this undertaking in Engaging Philosophies of Religion: Thinking Across Boundaries, edited by Gereon Kopf, Purushottama Bilimoria, and Nathan Loewen—a landmark in the global and critical reorientation of the field. The essay discusses the volume’s “multi-entry approach,” which fosters dialogue among eighteen paradigms, from Sikhi somatophilia and Lakota relationalism to Nyāya argumentation, critical theory hand-in-hand with feminist critique. While recognizing its achievement in decolonizing and pluralizing the discipline, the essay also cautions that, in pursuing inclusivity, the volume risks overlooking the substantive, capital- ‘T’ Truth claims (i.e. absolute, universal truth as distinct from conventional, subjective, relative, parochial, small-t truths), that arguably are central to many traditions. It concludes that the philosophy of religion must not only widen its scope but also sustain its commitment to the transformative pursuit of Truth and spirituality. (shrink)

I argue for a type of relativism that allows different people to have conflicting accurate representations of the world. This is contrary to the view of most Anglo-American philosophers, who would, with Paul Boghossian in Fear of Knowledge, deny that “there are many radically different, yet ‘equally valid’ ways of knowing the world.” My argument is not a metaphysical argument about the ultimate nature of the outside world, but a psychological argument about the mental processes of representation. The argument starts (...) from a few principles of naïve (or folk) psychology, but is later extended to apply to mechanisms that do not have a “psychology.” Finally, I briefly discuss the anti-relativist impulse in philosophy, with particular reference to Boghossian’s example of non-scientific beliefs regarding Lakota origins. I argue that both we and the Lakotas have good reason to reject such beliefs while still remaining relativists. Being a relativist does not mean that you get to believe whatever you like. (shrink)

Chapter 4 continues the probe of monstrosity by querying our species’ own self-aggrandizement into an unsustainable planetary presence alongside the kindred counter-response we are provoking from the biosphere, loosely figured as “climate-crisis.” But here the crisis is perhaps better composed in language as “comeuppance”—at once a re-action and rebalancing. The trek begins with a summary invocation of monster theory—especially in the work of Steven Engler, arguing for an interpretive rather than representational approach to the study of monsters that does not (...) so much cast the monster figures found in older cultures around the globe as “figurations” for something else (race, sex, excess, transgression) but rather takes those emblems seriously in context and focuses on delineating the way the figures “signify” in that context. But in this exploration the approach will invert the scholarly gaze to ask questions about what is lost when monsters are reduced merely to objects of study (much less cinematic entertainment) and the actual capacity for “feeling” monstrosity, so carefully kept alive in more indigenous cultures, is shriveled in modern arrogance into mere fascination with “the other.” Again, the supposition here is that human monstrosity on the planet in terms of our numbers and environmental impact is today quite real and indeed outsized—as is the blowback occasioned in response. But what is missing is the communally mediated emotionality necessary to perceive such. The chapter works with a triad of theorists running from African American scholar Charles Long’s mobilization of Rudolf Otto’s Mysterium Tremendum et fascinans, through Potawatomi biologist Robin Kimmerer’s characterization of the cannibalistic Anishinaabe Windigo apparition, to Lakota lawyer-theologian Vine Deloria’s invocation of a dread Land Presence—each of the three differentially marking out experiences of monstrous “hauntings” engendering trepidation and demanding respect. Together the three diagnose what could prove to be a fatal incapacity in modern global culture to wrestle with monstrosity as a real spiritual/material eventuality and with the ecoreciprocity and sense of limitation it more readily inculcates in cultures that still narrate the danger of excess as a central trope in their collective sensibility. (shrink)

A vision of law and justice that is rooted in relationality stands at the heart of this paper. To tribal people, such as the Lakota and Dakota, what sustains the lives of people are bonds of kinship relations that bind human and nonhuman life together with a sense of mutual responsibility and caring that is most aptly captured by the Lakota phrase Mitakuye Oysain, "all are relatives." What are important to tribal communities are collective rights and obligations as (...) embodied in Indian law and justice. Indian societies, thereby, have established their own tribal courts and legal systems that are markedly different from mainstream society. Indian people, it is argued, have much to teach about the limitations of the dominant legal culture and ways in which relationality serves a far better basis for law and justice than an adversarial system that demands winners and losers. (shrink)

Religious therapeutics is the term I use to designate relations between health and spirituality, and medicine and religion. Dimensions of religious therapeutics include religious meanings that inform medical theory, religious means of healing, health as part of religious life, and religion as a remedy for human suffering. Classical Yoga is analyzed to establish an initial matrix of religious therapeutics with 5 branches: philosophical foundations, soteriology, value theory, physical practice, and cultivation of consciousness. Through comparative criticism of classical Yoga, the study (...) presents a heuristic of religious therapeutics: a model for interpreting relations among healing and liberative functions in world religions. ;Body and health are of instrumental but not ultimate value in classical Yoga: the body is used to transcend itself for attainment of Yoga's soteriological goal, realization of self as pure consciousness. Yoga's Samkhya-based metaphysics contains an unreconciled dualism, and while practice of Yoga is paradigmatic of mind/body holism, Yoga prescribes realization of a spiritual self, independent of material and psychological nature. The study rehabilitates the body in respect of the compatibility of embodiedness with religiousness. ;Other Indian and world traditions suggest dimensions of religious therapeutics both resonant with classical Yoga and lacking from it. India's Ayurvedic medicine represents the sixth branch of religious therapeutics: medical therapeutics. I distill from Ayurvedic and Western sources a set of determinants of health: biological, medical/psychological, cultural, and metaphysical. Significant determinants of health are wholeness, self-identity, and freedom; these are incorporated in discussion of the complementary functions of medicine and religion, grounding the claim that in classical Yoga, liberation is healing in an ultimate sense. ;Tantric yogas utilize material nature for human spiritual progress, and unlike classical Yoga, esteem nature, body/mind, the feminine, and relationality. Tantra provides another branch of religious therapeutics: aesthetic therapeutics. The study anticipates elements of health/medicine in western religions, Buddhism, and Lakota religious philosophy. Sacred speech and song are explored to demonstrate comparative inquiry into religious therapeutics; some Native American Indian and Hindu applications of sacred language are considered. Finally, the model of religious therapeutics is supplemented with community, embracing ecological, social, and religious relationality and communication. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:The Cosmic Common Good: Religious Grounds for Ecological Ethics by Daniel P. ScheidJohn J. FitzgeraldThe Cosmic Common Good: Religious Grounds for Ecological Ethics Daniel P. Scheid new york: oxford university press, 2016. 264 pp. $31.95Published shortly after the first encyclical to focus on the environment (Pope Francis's Laudato Si'), Daniel Scheid's first book is a significant advance in Christian ethics and religious ecology. Scheid argues that resources in (...) Catholic social thought and other religious traditions can move one to an appreciation of a common good that includes the "more than human world" (xiv). In particular, he "aim[s] (1) to extend Catholic social thought ecologically, and (2) to extend Catholic ecological ethics comparatively" (8).The argument begins by broadening the notion of the common good into a "Catholic cosmic common good," which "emphasizes the centrality of God, the goodness of creation, and humanity's dignified and privileged but contextualized role within the story of creation" (32). This vision is then informed by Augustine, Aquinas, and Thomas Berry. Next, Scheid widens solidarity, a virtue that (per John Paul II) involves "commit[ting] oneself to the common good" (86), into "Earth solidarity," which attends to all ecosystems and species, particularly those most impacted by environmental damage. Solidarity cannot be exercised without respecting others' rights, and Scheid contends that these include "Earth rights" of biota, abiota, and ecosystems. Finally, in order to really "test the potential for the cosmic common good as a ground for interreligious ecological ethics" (124–25), he turns to three non-Abrahamic traditions that each support, augment, and challenge elements of his vision. A Hindu dharmic ecology is theocentric and blurs the line between humans and nonhumans, Buddhist traditions are nontheistic and highlight how all are [End Page 197] interrelated, and American Indians (specifically the Lakota) condemn individualism and demonstrate certain advantages of a more spatial (rather than simply temporal) perspective.The Cosmic Common Good covers an impressive range of thought in under two hundred pages of main text. While the argumentation is intricate, the logical ordering of chapters, the repetition of important points, and some vivid examples assist the reader in following along. The case for Earth rights is especially bold and well argued; Scheid considers objections to them and shows that they can be intelligibly grounded (as prima facie and proportionately weighted) in self-governance and creaturely dignity. This is a very promising development in Catholic social thought, as recent key magisterial teachings do not explicitly affirm that animals have dignity (or rights) but limit themselves to the notion that harming animals is "contrary to human dignity" (see Laudato Si', §§ 92, 130, quoting Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2418).While the book is generally comprehensive, there are a few surprising lacunae. First, although Scheid himself recognizes that "a properly Catholic ecological ethics would certainly not dismiss the centrality of the Bible" (198n16), there is very little reference to it. The author briefly alludes to the Psalms' portrayal of the natural world (47, 181), but more integration of the Old and New Testaments would have been illuminating. And while The Cosmic Common Good makes a commendable last-minute effort to incorporate insights from Laudato Si', Francis's predecessor Benedict XVI (often dubbed "the Green Pope") receives too-short shrift. Benedict's ecological views are referenced only on one page, perhaps because they are somewhat more anthropocentric than the "Earth-centered or cosmos-centered" ethic developed by Scheid (24). Regardless, the former pope's frequent calls for environmental responsibility to the poor, future generations, and animals would surely lend some healthy support to the cosmic common good. But these omissions do not detract much from the merits of this book, which should be read "not as a definitive conclusion but as an invitation to generate greater interreligious dialogue and cooperation on an issue that demands extensive and immediate action" (11). Professional academics, graduate students, and others who are somewhat versed in the sophisticated issues Scheid raises would do well to take up his invitation. [End Page 198]John J. FitzgeraldSt. John's University (New York)Copyright © 2018 Society of Christian Ethics... (shrink)

A broadly liberal politics requires political compassion; not simply in the sense of compassion for the victims of injustice, but also for opponents confronted through political protest and (more broadly) dissent. There are times when, out of a sense of compassion, a just cause should not be pressed. There are times when we need to accommodate the dreadfulness of loss for opponents, even when the cause for which they fight is unjust. We may also have to come to terms with (...) the irreversibility of historic injustice and reconcile. Political compassion of this sort carries risks. Pushed too far, it may weaken our commitment to justice through too great a sympathy for those on the other side. It would be convenient if such compassion could be constrained by a clear set of political principles. But principles run the quite different risk of promoting an 'ossified dissent', unable to respond to change. In this book, Tony Milligan argues that principles are only a limited guide to dissent in unique, contingent circumstances. They will not tell us how to deal with the truly difficult cases such as the following: Should the Lakota celebrate Thanksgiving? When is the crossing of a picket-line justified? What kind of toleration must animal rights advocates cultivate to make progress within a broadly liberal political domain? And how should we respond to the entangling of aspiration towards social justice with anger and prejudice (such as the 'anti-Zionist' discourse)? We may be tempted to answer these questions by presupposing that alignment (the business of choosing sides) is ultimately more important than compassion, but sometimes political compassion trumps alignment. Sometimes, being on the right side is not the most important thing. (shrink)

Documenting my lifelong quest to achieve peace through self-understanding, I analyzed personal and professional lived experiences related to the divided- self phenomenon as the root cause of problems in society-at-large. Growing up Euro-American in peaceful post-WWII South Dakota, the Vietnam War shattered my idealism. I underwent a dysfunctional rite-of-passage, manifested as divided self-identity issues throughout adulthood. By age 50, my wounded spirit had yet to heal when I became an educator. For 20 years, teaching at-risk youth in poverty- stricken Indigenous (...) communities on and off Western South Dakota reservations, I witnessed students exhibit the same split identity symptoms typical of most youth raised in cultural climates of fear, violence, and war. Evoking personal and existential reawakening, the protocols of transformative phenomenology pattern an ancient rite-of-passage to Enlightenment: On my ičhimani wáȟwala (Lakota for “journey to peace”), unique self-discoveries led to universal truths, adopting Indigenous worldview as a vision of peace - a way of belonging to humanity, being human, and becoming whole. Primal precepts are founded upon the oneness principle, exemplified in the Lakota concept, mitákuye oyás’in, translated as “all my relatives” or “we are all related” on the quest for understanding and peace. Acknowledging this ideal, peace can be achieved through self-understanding, as each fulfills their ultimate human need to help others - by making a contribution to community, collective knowledge, and the greater good. Seeking the restoration of Indigenous Lifeworlds, I share my story, hoping to empower all my relatives to do the same. (shrink)

Although in modern times and clinical settings, we rarely see the old characteristics of tribal shamanism such as deep trances, out-of-body experiences, and soul retrieval, the archetypal dreams, waking visions and active imagination of modern depth psychology represents a liminal zone where ancient and modern shamanism overlaps with analytical psychology. These essays explore the contributors' excursions as healers and therapists into this zone. The contributors describe the many facets shamanism and depth psychology have in common: animal symbolism; recognition of the (...) reality of the collective unconscious; and healing rituals that put therapist and patient in touch with transpersonal powers. By reintroducing the core of shamanism in contemporary form, these essays shape a powerful means of healing that combines the direct contact with the inner psyche one finds in shamanism with the self-reflection and critical awareness of modern consciousness. The essays draw from the contributors' experiences both inside and outside the consulting room, and with cultures that include the Lakota Sioux, and those of the Peruvian Andes and the Hawaiian Islands. The focus is on those aspects of shamanism most useful and relevant to the modern practice of depth psychology. As a result, these explorations bring the young practice of analytical psychology into perspective as part of a much more ancient heritage of shamanistic healing. Contributors: Margaret Laurel Allen, Norma Churchill, Arthur Colman, Lori Cromer, Patricia Damery, C. Jess Groesbeck, Pansy Hawk Wing, June Kounin, Carol McRae, Pilar Montero, Jeffrey A. Raff, Janet S. Robinson, Meredith Sabini, Dyane N. Sherwood, Sara Spaulding-Phillips, Bradley A. Te Paske and Louis M. Vuksinick. (shrink)

This chapter shares the author’s experiences in thinking about the development of virtues, reflecting on observations from his career as a developmental researcher and clinician. As a newcomer to this topic, the author presents some perspectives that supplement the valuable contributions of others represented in this volume (e.g., in the chapters of Thompson, Narvaez, Carlo, and Snow). The chapter begins with the author’s entry points to thinking about the topic, followed by reflections generated from observations in infancy that include basic (...) functions of moral development. This leads to considerations about resources for virtues in the developmental process that are provided by our evolutionary biology. The conclusion of the chapter reflects on pathways to virtues from infancy on, as well as challenges for research. (shrink)

During the Standing Rock protests in North Dakota, USA/Turtle Island, a group of military veterans knelt in front of Oceti Sakowin Elders asking forgiveness for centuries of settler colonial military ventures in Oceti Sakowin Territory. Leonard Crow Dog forgave them and immediately demanded respect for Native Nations throughout the U.S. Lacking such respect, he said, Native people will cease paying taxes. Crow Dog’s post-forgiveness remarks speak to the political context of the military veterans’ request: They seek collective forgiveness amidst ongoing (...) occupation and harms committed by the collective they represent. In this chapter, I examine this case study and argue that ongoing harm undermines requests for forgiveness on behalf of collectives. I look to the work of Glen Coultard, Waziyatawin, and Leanne Simpson to consider what a responsible request for collective forgiveness would entail. (shrink)

The writings of Ian Barbour and Arthur Peacocke can be construed as initial contributions to a Lakatosian research program on the relation between theology and science, the core theory of which is the thesis that theology belongs at the top of a nonreducible hierarchy of sciences. The positive heuristic of this program involves showing that theology and the sciences have enough in common epistemologically to be so related and arguing for nonreducibility. The author in this essay “rationally reconstructs” some of (...) her philosophical work as a contribution to these tasks. (shrink)

This sweeping study of mysticism by Jess Hollenback considers the writings and experiences of a broad range of traditional religious mystics, including Teresa of Avila, Black Elk, and Gopi Krishna. It also makes use of a new category of sources that more traditional scholars have almost entirely ignored, namely, the autobiographies and writings of contemporary clairvoyants, mediums, and out-of-body travelers. This study contributes to the current debate about the contextuality of mysticism by presenting evidence that not only are the mystic's (...) interpretations of and responses to experiences culturally and historically conditioned, but historical context and cultural environment decisively shape both the perceptual and affective content of the mystic's experience as well. Hollenback also explores the linkage between the mystic's practice of recollection and the onset of other unusual or supernormal manifestations such as photisms, the ability to see auras, telepathic sensitivity, clairvoyance, and out-of-body experiences. He demonstrates that these extraordinary phenomena can actually deepen our understanding of mysticism in unexpected ways. A unique feature of this book is its in-depth analysis of "empowerment," an important phenomenon ignored by most scholars of mysticism. Empowerment is a peculiar enhancement of the imagination, thoughts, and desires that frequently accompanies mystical states of consciousness. Hollenback shows its cross-cultural persistence, its role in constructing the perceptual and existential environments within which the mystic dwells, and its linkage to the fundamental contextuality of mystical experience. (shrink)

The interconnections between self and surroundings in Daoist thought have been explored in the past in a variety of contexts. This paper, however, explores the Daoist version of the relational self from the general perspective of chaos theory and, more specifically, examines the role of the self in creating emergent form and dynamism in nature and society. The fractal self and world merge through the disciplined effort of the sage until the effort becomes effortless. Both self and world are transformed (...) and become one through the emergent moment. This moment represents a new opportunity for subsequent patterns, or attractors, to emerge. We suggest that the self folds itself into the world, creating and being created by a new attractor, or pattern, in the organization of nature, which we argue is Dao. Our current investigation addresses the following aspects of chaos theory and its relation to Daoism: (1) the Daoist notion of wuwei as perfect congruence; (2) yin and yang at the edge of chaos; (3) the emergent nature of the myriad things; and (4) a Daoist warning against fractal disconnections in the world. Finally, we conclude that the self has the potential to become the world. To approach this amplified condition, the self must dedicate itself to and risk open engagement with events across the complexity of nature. Through openly engaging the world, the self is transformed, leaving the world forever changed. (shrink)

У статті автор розглядає суспільну, просвітницьку, релігійну діяльність блаженного Г. Лакоти. Висвітлено основні віхи біографії владики. Автор акцентує на тому, що проповіді й промови блаженного Г. Лакоти вселяли надію на краще майбутнє та були пронизані патріотичними ідеями. Основною метою владики було формування нового покоління духовенства, яке б сприяло відродженню національного життя українства на принципах християнської моралі.

This chapter considers whether collective self-determination, which justifies a right of jurisdiction, can also generate a right to control natural resources. It discusses the limits of that argument, focusing especially on the limits of justice. Part One deals with territorial claims over unoccupied islands, the seabed, the Arctic, and Antarctica. These are viewed as resources by the rival claimants, and their respective claims should be conceived of as property claims. The second part of the chapter deals with cases where there (...) are natural resources—oil, fertile land, water, coal—on land that is co-extensive with an area occupied by a group. It develops a middle ground between a strong resource rights conception, associated with current views of state sovereignty, and the cosmopolitan view that thinks of groups as having no special claims to resources within their midst, indeed thinking of it as a kind of undeserved advantage. (shrink)

In recent years, there has been renewed controversy about monuments to the Confederacy: these monuments, their detractors insist, are instruments of white supremacy—and, as such, ought to be lowered immediately. The dialectic is by now familiar: though some insist that these monuments are mere sites of memory, others note the relevant memory is that of the Confederacy—and that, because of this, the monuments are inevitably racist. Worse, the monuments were raised by racist individuals for racist ends; no surprise, then, that (...) so many experience them as racist—that is, as instruments of white supremacy. For all of these reasons, the monuments ought to be lowered. -/- And probably it is so. But what does one do when the instrument of white supremacy is a mountain? What does one do, moreover, when it is less than clear whether that mountain is an instrument of white supremacy? What does one do, in other words, when that mountain is a monument to a regime only ambiguously racist? What does one do when it was raised by a racist individual for a racist end—but has since that time come to be seen as a monument to precisely the opposite ideals? What does one do, in other words, when it is experienced by most not as a symbol of white supremacy but as a symbol—indeed, as the symbol—of freedom and equality? -/- What does one do, in short, with Mount Rushmore at this moment—that is, in the wake of the Charleston shooting and the Charlottesville rally? And can the experience of those who saw the mountain prior to its status as a monument—that is, the Lakota—illuminate this question? In this essay, I examine these monumental questions. I ask them—and try to answer them—first as a consequentialist, second as a deontologist, and third as a virtue ethicist. (shrink)

The contours of American continental expansion and empire began to take shape in 1848. Like the first sixty years of U.S. expansion, dealing with Indigenous societies, particularly those that resisted white intrusion, was largely assigned to the national standing army, as was enforcement of Reconstruction in the former Confederate states between 1863 and 1877. However, this era was not one of continual warfare but of alternating, often overlapping periods of uneasy peace, intense violence, diplomacy, conciliation, and cross-cultural encounter. The U.S. (...) national state and its army played complex but crucial roles, both in warfare and in consolidating U.S. territorial expansion. The army’s success was often local, contingent, and required repeated efforts. Historians long focused on warfare, often at the tactical level of battles, but have begun to understand the process of white expansion and Indigenous resistance in more depth, breadth, and context. (shrink)