ABSTRACT
The "Indian Rights" organizations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, for example, is one of these, as is the "Indian Ring" of the late nineteenth century. The name of the game played by Indian Rings has been and is interest group politics, their aims the ordinary ones of manipulating power and controlling resources. The economic dimension has always been and continues to be of special importance in the operations of Indian Rings, old and new. The five-century-old competition for acquisition of, access to, or protection of Indian owned natural resources continues, if necessarily in attenuated form given the decline of the Indian land base. The organizational features of the Indian Rings, old and new, are implicit in the foregoing. These are little more than those of a special interest lobby, one operating within the structure of state and regional politics of the United States. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
