The Link between Enviromental Policy and the Colonization Process and Its Effects on American Indian Involvement in Crime, Law, and Society

Source: (2006) In, Ross, Jeffrey Ian and Gould, Larry, editors, Native Americans and the Criminal Justice System, Paradigm Publisher, Boulder, London. pp. 67-84

Present criminal justice literature does not recognize the connection between the environment and criminal justice issues as they pertain to American Indian people. This chapter is an essential piece that attempts to fill the void in understanding native issues relating to criminal justice, law, and society. For the most part, native peoples have been denied equal access to economic power in the past throughout the United States and Canada, particularly in the area of environmental resources. management. This is particularly important given the historical and contemporary connectedness of indigenous people to the land. Indigenous people have been uniformly excluded or at least marginalized when it comes to the passage of laws upon their lands. When laws are passed and decisions made that adversely affect native lands, resistance by native people occurs. In times past, native resistance to this intrusion has had violent consequences, including victimization through loss of land base, autonomy, and resulting poverty. When native people resist, oftentimes they are arrested and experience the odyssey of a journey through the criminal justice system. (excerpt)