Indigeneity, Self-Determination, and Sovereignty bear important relations to one another.  Indigeneity is a term used by the United Nations denoting persons having an origin in a particular place, generally sustaining the community from local resources. Self-Determination involves a history of autonomous acting, whether an individual, community, or state.  Sovereignty is an international term referring to an attribute of government-to-government relations.  In Indian Country, indigeneity creates a way of being as related to a particular place, a particular area of land. Self-Determination is what American Indian nations experienced as autonomous communities prior to colonial contact.  Sovereignty has a history in the Papal Bulls of the 15th century, and was reaffirmed by John Marshall in an early U.S. Supreme Court decision.  My talk will explore what, if anything, these concepts can offer to American Indian nations by way of political theory and government relations.

Anne Waters earned two M.A. degrees and a Ph.D. in Philosophy as well as a J.D. degree and has taught and lectured at many institutions around the country. She is also a writer and poet. A Native American feminist theorist with links to several native peoples, she has been an active voice in both philosophy and law. She is founder and president of the American Indian Philosophy Association, and she chairs the American Philosophical Association Committee on American Indians in Philosophy as well as co-editing its newsletter. In addition to authoring many journal and encyclopedia articles, Waters is editor of American Indian Thought: A Philosophy Reader and co-editor of American Philosophies: An Anthology (both Blackwell, 2002). She is co-editor of a forthcoming special issue of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy on American Indian Women and Feminism.

Sponsored by: The Philosophy Department, UNR, 784-6846
   The Leonard Endowment and
   The Grant Sawyer Center for Justice Studies, UNR, 784-6272