Smooth the Dying Pillow: Alaska Natives and Their Destruction [original paper]

A slightly revised version of this paper was published as: Conn, Stephen. (1990). "Smooth the Dying Pillow: Alaska Natives and Their Destruction." Law & Anthropology: Internationales Jahrbuch für Rechtsanthropologie [International Yearbook for Legal Anthropology] 5: 167–183. Special issue on "Group Rights: Strategies for Assisting the Fourth World." Vienna, Austria: VWGO-Verlag. (http://hdl.handle.net/11122/9786).The policy for Native self-determination in Alaska developed by the Congress and the state has sought to replace a tribal model of governance with a body of legislation which confirms land rights without the direct political involvement of Alaska Native villages. However, the author argues, the absence of tribes as formal political structures has contributed to a loss of self-determination among Alaska Natives and to serious negative effects on Native village life.[Introduction] / The Pre-Land Claims Agenda: 1955–1965 / The Land Claims Era: 1967–1972 / 1988 — A Watershed / Footnotes / Bibliograph