ABSTRACT
Elected to the White House for two terms after serving as California’s governor, Ronald Reagan did not have a useful Indian policy during his presidency. During Reagan’s two terms, native leaders felt betrayed by the federal government. Reagan’s policy of reigning in government spending-“Reagonomics”—devastated tribal communities. Between Ronald Reagan’s two terms and the rise of decolonization as a practical program of tribal action, Native Americans faced many of the same challenges that they had in previous decades. Through policies of tribal recognition, the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), and the rise of casinos under state and federal policies, governments still tried to define tribal self-determination and sovereignty. In a number of areas in the 1980s and 1990s, from Indian gaming to tribal peoples’ struggles for repatriating sacred objects and ancestral remains and to creating new expressions of cultural values in art and literature, Native Americans fought to control their own futures.
