11+ Robert A. Williams, Jr. Quotes On Education

Robert A. Williams, Jr. is a professor of law at the University of Arizona College of Law. He is a noted scholar of Indigenous law and is widely recognized as a leading expert on tribal sovereignty. He is the author of several books, including The American Indian in Western Legal Thought and Linking Arms Together: American Indian Treaty Visions of Law and Peace, 1600–1800. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Robert A. Williams, Jr. on leadership, education, life.

Case of Johnson v. M'Intosh is continued to be cited today by the Supreme Court. Even Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the most liberal member of the court, in footnote one of opinion she wrote several years ago involving the Oneida Nation cites the Doctrine of Discovery. The court never questions it. — Robert A. Williams, Jr.

Very much like African-Americans, the history of America is taking away resources, whether it's labor or whether it's land from one racial group to give them to the dominate racial group. So in that sense, there is a very similar experience with Indians. — Robert A. Williams, Jr.

That Indians are lawless people, I would change that because it's probably the most harmful stereotype. — Robert A. Williams, Jr.

Today what we see is tribes moving into the 21st century and facing real 21st century problems of globalization, of multi-national, national resource development, of jobs, tribes have elected leaderships. They're elected to do a lot of things. — Robert A. Williams, Jr.

If you're an Indian, you could be very anxious about some of the Supreme Court's decisions, some of the decisions of policy makers, so maybe a little bit of irony there. But I think our "Savage Anxieties," when I titled the book, I really wanted to focus people on the challenge that tribes in this country, as well as indigenous peoples around the world, are confronting Western civilization with. — Robert A. Williams, Jr.

US law and international human rights law have radically diverged in the past years in terms of the recognition of indigenous people's rights. International human rights law now looks at not whether or not the tribes have formal ownership or legal title in a Western legal conception might have it, but rather they look at the tribe's historical connection to that land. — Robert A. Williams, Jr.

One was a horrible case called Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe which denied tribes the right to criminally prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes on their reservations. That decision has had horrible consequences for law enforcement on Indian reservations. But in that opinion Justice William Rehnquist cites language from the 1830s to explain why whites didn't trust tribes to exercise criminal jurisdiction. They were savages. — Robert A. Williams, Jr.

What I tried to show is that this idea of this fundamental conflict between savagery and civilization goes back to the very beginnings of Western history. I go back to the Greeks, I go back to the Romans. You can read Homer. And of course Homer has his great heroes involved in this myth, this wonderful mythic contest with savage tribal peoples, half-human monsters on distant parts of the world. — Robert A. Williams, Jr.

In fact, Native American Rights Fund has a project called the Supreme Court Project. And quite frankly, it's focused on trying to keep cases out of the Supreme Court. This Supreme Court, Justice Roberts is actually, hard to believe, was probably worse than the Rehnquist Court. If you look at the few decisions that it's issued. — Robert A. Williams, Jr.

Until we start attacking the root of the historical problems of discrimination against Indians, and those Indians begin in these stereotypes, that Indians are less civilized than us, they're less able to exercise self-governing functions. Until we get to the roots of those problems, we're not going to change legislation. We're not going to change the hearts and minds of the Supreme Court. — Robert A. Williams, Jr.

What this ideology, what this myth about savagery did was really excuse America for the disappearance of the Indian. It wasn't our fault. They were just an inferior race. And so John Marshall adopts that. And the tragedy and the present-day circumstances of that decision are that those racial attitudes are so deeply embedded in these foundational principles of American Indian law. — Robert A. Williams, Jr.

Life Lessons by Robert A. Williams, Jr.

1. Robert A. Williams, Jr. emphasizes the importance of understanding the complexities of Indigenous legal systems and their relationship to the colonial legal systems that have been imposed on them.
2. He also encourages Indigenous peoples to use their own legal systems to protect their rights and to resist colonial systems of oppression.
3. Finally, he advocates for a more equitable and respectful relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, based on mutual understanding and respect for each other's legal systems.