"Shadow federalism:" natural resources, Native Americans, and national interactions

Abstract

This research describes and delineates a regime surrounding the concept of relational federalism as it involves Native American and United States governments. This regime is called "shadow federalism." Following regime theory, shadow federalism is an imposed regime with its common norms and values being the centrality of United States laws and forums in the definition and decision of Native American land and resource issues. This study looks at whether the regime changed between 1970 and 1995, the first twenty-five years of the United States' self-determination policy, which called for increased Native American control of Native American lives and lands. Databases were created using six federal agencies' reservation expenditures, reservation demographic data, decisions of administrative appeals by the Department of the Interior (DOI), media content analysis, and surveys to state and tribal governments. The data analysis indicates that there have been some changes in the regime, including increased tribal government participation in some forums, decreased native participation in DOI appeals, rising and falling conflict, and changes in the Bureau of Indian Affairs' role. However, on the central point of the presence and continued effectiveness of the imposed regime, it is clear that United States forums and laws are still the determining factors in the disposition of Native American lands and resources. Native Americans continue to lose control of land and resources, federal forums are used for decision of conflicts, and United States entities win when native resources are at stake. The imposed regime has been resilient and adaptive. The data also show the centrality of water issues, the lack of consistent federal policy, the need for variables other than traditional Political Science variables in discussing tribal-federal relations, tribal and state governments' low administrative capacity in this policy arena, and strong regional differences that indicate the shortcomings of a case study approach. For regime theory, this research indicates the importance of widening the discussion to include more research on imposed and long-term regimes. The shadow federalism regime has been characterized by a high level of conflict, an implicit order, and internal inconsistencies. It has also been highly successful.