Reviewed by:

• Voice of the Tribes: A History of the National Tribal Chairmen's Association by Thomas A. Britten
• Mark E. DeGiovanni Miller

If remembered today, the National Tribal Chairmen's Association (NTCA) is recalled as a pawn of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), a force against change that opposed the Red Power activists of the early 1970s while serving as a force of exclusion, seeking to silence the voice of newly arising unrecognized tribes, urban Indians, and pan-Indian groups. As I revealed in my book, Claiming Tribal Identity (University of Oklahoma Press, 2013), scholars have not paid enough attention to the legitimate concerns of federally recognized tribes in seeking to protect valuable economic, political, and social capital in opposition to a chorus of competing groups seeking to speak for the "Indian people" in the modern era of tribal sovereignty and self-determination that began in the early 1970s. With this work, historian Thomas Britten has provided a valuable and nuanced examination of these contending constituencies and demands through the lens of the NTCA from its creation in 1971 to its demise during the Reagan years in 1987.

In clear prose, Britten details the efforts of the NTCA to influence developments in Indian policy during these important decades. As he notes, the chairmen's group claimed to be the only legitimate voice of Indian people due to its position as the representative body of duly elected tribal chairpersons. Until the mid-1980s when it reversed course (a stance that led to its demise, according to Britten), the NTCA strived to utilize its insider status, personal connections, and generally accommodationist strategy with the BIA (in the executive branch) and Congress to pursue its goals to improve the status of reservation-based Indians. National developments that the association influenced included helping to pass the landmark Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 and other laws that protect Native children, trust lands, and natural resources. Britten concludes the NTCA was moderately successful in its lobbying and consulting work to defend recognized tribes from various efforts to erode tribal sovereignty posed by "backlash" groups over fishing and hunting rights, legal jurisdiction, and campaigns to end the BIA and the perceived dependency of Indian peoples on government funding.

Throughout the book, Britten attempts to offer assessments as to the efficacy of the NTCA's work in its various campaigns. As critics often noted, the association potentially was compromised and coopted because it received almost all its funding from the federal government, particularly the BIA. To this Britten argues the NTCA was able to resist cooptation due to its ability to reach out to the public and by having made itself "indispensable" to the government in providing data and information, recommendations on legislation, and meaningful consultation. However, once [End Page 503] its new executive director Elmer Savilla took charge in 1981 and took a clearly adversarial tone and stance toward the anti-tribal Reagan Administration, its funding was canceled in 1987, and the organization ceased to exist.

In its analyses regarding the impact of NTCA lobbying and political activities, the book is marred by a strong tendency to conclude with statements such as it "may never be known" or it "cannot be determined." This propensity is linked to the general absence of oral interviews, which if conducted correctly, could have rooted out the answers to these questions, given more voice to the participants, and strengthened the work overall. That said, the book is well-grounded in appropriate secondary sources as well as strong research into archival sources.

Voice of the Tribes should be on reading lists of serious students of federal Indian policy, modern Indian organizing, and tribal politics of the 1970s and 1980s. It is well written and fills an important gap in the literature on native politics during these decades.

审核人：

• 部落的声音：托马斯·A·布里顿（Thomas A. Britten）的全国部落主席协会历史
• 马克·E·德乔凡尼·米勒

如果今天还记得的话，美国全国部落主席协会（NTCA）被召回为印度事务局（BIA）的典当，这是一支反对变革的力量，在1970年代初期反对红色力量激进主义者，同时又被排斥在外，寻求使新出现的未被认可的部落，城市印第安人和泛印第安人团体的声音保持沉默。正如我在《宣称部落身份》一书中所揭示的那样（俄克拉荷马大学出版社，2013年），学者们没有充分注意联邦认可部落在保护宝贵的经济，政治和社会资本方面的正当关切，以反对试图为“印度1970年代初开始的现代部落主权和自决时代。通过这项工作，历史学家托马斯·布里顿（Thomas Britten）通过NTCA的镜头，从1971年创立到1987年里根时期的消亡，对这些竞争者和需求进行了宝贵而细微的考察。

Britten用清晰的散文详述了NTCA在这重要的几十年中影响印度政策发展的努力。正如他指出，主席的小组自称是印度人民的唯一合法的声音，因为它作为正式当选主席部落的代表机构的地位。直到1980年代中期，它扭转了局面（根据Britten的说法，这导致了它的灭亡）之前，NTCA一直在利用其内部人的身份，人脉关系以及与BIA（在行政部门中）和国会的一般性的宽容主义战略。追求其目标，以改善基于保留的印第安人的地位。该协会影响的国家发展包括帮助通过具有里程碑意义的1975年《印度自决和教育援助法》以及其他保护土著儿童，信任土地的法律，和自然资源。Britten得出结论，NTCA在游说和咨询工作中取得了一定程度的成功，该游说旨在捍卫公认的部落，使其免受各种种种努力破坏“抵制”团体在捕鱼和狩猎权，法律管辖权以及结束BIA和人们对BIA的依赖的运动中所构成的部落主权。印度人民依靠政府资助。

在整本书中，Britten试图对NTCA在其各种活动中的工作效果进行评估。正如批评家经常指出的那样，该协会有可能遭到妥协并被选中，因为它几乎从联邦政府，特别是BIA获得了所有资金。对此Britten认为，NTCA能够抵制合作，因为它具有接触公众的能力，并使其在提供数据和信息，立法建议和有意义的咨询方面对政府“不可或缺”。然而，[End Page 503]新任执行董事埃尔默·萨维拉（Elmer Savilla）于1981年掌管并对反部族里根政府采取明显的敌对态度和立场后，其资金在1987年被取消，该组织不复存在。

在对NTCA游说和政治活动的影响进行分析时，这本书倾向于以“也许永远不知道”或“无法确定”这样的结论作为结尾。这种倾向与普遍缺乏口头面试有关，如果正确进行口头面试，可能会根除这些问题的答案，使参与者有更多的发言权，并加强整体工作。就是说，这本书在适当的二手资料以及对档案资料的深入研究方面都有很好的基础。

部落之声应该出现在认真阅读印度联邦政策，现代印度组织和1970年代和1980年代部落政治的学生的名单上。它写得很好，填补了这几十年来有关本土政治的文献中的一个重要空白。