Source: http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/12/29/duane-champagnes-turtle-island-tales-68379

1. Che-Wei Lee 1
Copyright © 2014 by Che-Wei Lee. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act
of 1976, no part of this manuscript may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a
database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.
Poitra, Christie-Michelle. 2011. “Duane Champagne’s Turtle Island Tales.” Indian Country
Today Media Network, December 29.
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/12/29/duane-champagnes-turtle-island-
tales-68379.
Review by: Che-Wei Lee, Department of Administrative and Policy Studies, University of
Pittsburgh
Accessed: Tuesday, 8 April 2014, 01:09 a.m.
Note: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Code).
Comment
Christie-Michelle Poitra’s interview with Dr. Duane Champagne on his recent book offers
constructive conversation that helps audience much more engage Dr. Champagne’s Notes from
the Center of Turtle Mountain book (2010, AltaMira Press) and his thoughts on several vital
themes he made in this work. Those who are interested in the core values and issues of American
Indian and other indigenous nations around the world should read this interview to get a good
sense of approaching indigenous affairs through reading Champagne’s book. Poitra has raised
essential questions that many indigenous people and non-indigenous people have been yearning
to ask. Audience may see how Dr. Champagne’s relates his perspectives and stance to
contemporary indigenous issues.
Original Text
Paragraph 1: True to the origins of its title, Notes from the Center of Turtle Island (AltaMira
Press, 2010) offers a modern spin on historical American Indian issues about identity,
community, governance, politics, culture and education. The book, written by UCLA sociology
professor Duane Champagne (also a columnist for Indian Country Today Media Network),
dissects and explains the pressing matters confronting many communities today.
Paragraph 2: Notes From the Center of Turtle Island is arranged under several large
contemporary social and political themes. Each topic features vignettes adapted from editorials
previously featured in Indian Country Today. The essays build thematically upon one another to
highlight the relationship between indigenous identity and community cohesiveness, federal
policy creation and international relations.
Paragraph 3: With no less depth, the work delves into what the notions of citizenship and rights
mean to indigenous people. In this regard, Champagne probes how indigenous societies approach
the contemporary world (according to their varying needs, histories, and cultures) to maintain
their distinctiveness and have their governments further recognized by non-indigenous
bureaucracies. Ultimately, the book is driven by Champagne’s desire to raise awareness and
provoke discussion about the contentions between the interests of indigenous people, and the
assimilation and acculturation ideologies of broad society.
Paragraph 4: Champagne says his intention is to reach “students in Indian studies classes as
well as Indian professionals, those sympathetic to or interested in Indian affairs, policy makers,

2. 2 Incommensurate Indigenous Rights?
Copyright © 2014 by Che-Wei Lee. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act
of 1976, no part of this manuscript may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a
database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.
tribal and U.S. legislators.” The work clearly accomplishes this goal. The style and direction of
Notes from the Center of Turtle Island will appeal to an array of audiences and levels of
expertise; the commentaries are complex yet practical in nature.
The book is a smooth read, not drily academic. And the content is not only clear but also
presented with care and insight.
A Chat with Duane Champagne
Duane Champagne chatted recently with Indian Country Today Media Network’s Christie-
Michelle Poitra.
Q 1: What was your goal in selecting your pieces?
To start a conversation regarding what it means to be an indigenous person and to explore these
issues in a meaningful way. The book is designed to be readable and accessible. It is not trying to
determine a direction or a solution. The communities themselves will determine how they
approach the future. The book is also designed to help them think about that process and tries to
articulate an indigenous perspective on contemporary issues, especially on community, identity,
policy and indigenous rights.
Q 2: What message would you like young Native professionals to take away? Non-Native
readers? Community members?
I try to clarify and expand the discussion of indigenous people politically, socially and legally.
The book focuses on unique, unresolved issues and helps set out an indigenous paradigm or point
of view that is not well recognized or understood at the moment. For non-Natives, a clearer
understanding of what indigenous community and identity mean in the contemporary world. To
raise consciousness and improve the understanding of these complex relationships and show that
indigenous people make up distinct political and cultural communities, and explain their
continuing unwillingness to wholly embrace citizenship and participation in nation-states.
Q 3: What do you see as the biggest (social, political or cultural) misunderstanding between
American Indians and the U.S. government?
Government-to-government relationships comprise the critical issues that define indigenous
communities. The cultural structures of indigenous communities, small and decentralized, make
them very different than mainstream liberal, democratic nation-states like the U.S. In mainstream
society there is a tendency to think of identity as multiple and something that changes according
to circumstance. Indigenous identities are embedded in community, spirituality, land and self-
government. Nation-states want to see indigenous communities as national integrated and
assimilated individuals. Indigenous people want to stand outside the nation-state and be based on
self-government and autonomy from time immemorial, and to participate in nation-states only on
a consensual basis. Indigenous peoples are willing to participate as citizens but not at the expense
of sacrificing their indigenous communities and rights.

3. Che-Wei Lee 3
Copyright © 2014 by Che-Wei Lee. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act
of 1976, no part of this manuscript may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a
database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.
Q 4: What is missing in the dialogue between the U.S. government and American Indians?
Policy tends not to be supportive enough to develop the economies and governments of
indigenous communities, and there is a lot of external control. Nation-states should take their
trust responsibility into the 21st century, recognize indigenous political communities, and foster
their economic, political and cultural well-being. In return, indigenous peoples will be more
willing to participate as citizens as long as their political, cultural, and economic heritages and
futures are recognized and supported.
Q 5: What ways can these two types of governments (Indian and U.S.) work together? Is
there a common ground? Or are the two simply destined not to understand each other?
They are just different perspectives. There is, frankly, no common ground in many issues. Lots
of indigenous communities have perspectives about relationships with other nations that are
embedded within their cultural worldviews. Indigenous People do not want to have antagonist
relationships with other nations or spiritual beings within the universe, such as plants, animals,
and animate forces of nature. Ideally, indigenous peoples want to respect and honor other human
communities and beings. At the same time, they want to be allowed to live their own ways of life
and have other communities, including nation states, respect indigenous communities. That can
happen at the individual level, but it is more difficult at government-to-government levels.
Author Note
Duane Champagne is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa from North Dakota.
He is Professor of Sociology, American Indian Studies Center, and Law at UCLA. He is
currently a member of the Faculty Advisory Committee for the UCLA Native Nations Law and
Policy Center, and is Acting Director of the UCLA School of Law’s Tribal Learning Community
and Educational Exchange. His research interests focus on issues of social and cultural change in
historical and contemporary Native American communities. He has written and edited over 125
publications. Recent publications include Captured Justice: Native Nations and Public Law 280
(with Dr. Carole Goldberg, UCLA School of Law) (Carolina Academic Press, 2012) and Notes
from the Center of Turtle Island (AltaMira Press, 2010).