A citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations (MHA Nation), Raymond Cross has carried out unparalleled work as an Indian lawyer, a tribal advocate, and an Indian law scholar. Coyote Warrior chronicles Cross\u27s incredible journey from youngest child of a prominent Indian family to American Indian rights crusader, to his two triumphant appearances before the United States Supreme Court, to his lobbying efforts to secure compensation for the lost homelands of his nations. Paul VanDevelder\u27s journalistic style lends much to these tales that appeared before only in the oft-stale pages of the United States Reporter and Congressional hearing transcripts

Fletcher, Matthew L. M.

English

UNL | Libraries

University of Nebraska - Lincoln 
DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln 
Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for 
2006 
Book Review: Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the Trial 
That Forged a Nation 
Matthew L. M. Fletcher 
University of North Dakota, matthew.fletcher@law.msu.edu 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly 
 Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons 
Fletcher, Matthew L. M., "Book Review: Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the Trial That Forged a 
Nation" (2006). Great Plains Quarterly. 63. 
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/63 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at 
DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an 
authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. 
304 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2006 
Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the 
Trial That Forged a Nation. By Paul VanDevelder. 
New York: Little, Brown, 2004; Lincoln: 
University of Nebraska Press, 2005. vii + 321 pp. 
Map, photograph, appendixes, notes, bibliogra-
phy, index. $25.95 cloth, $19.95 paper. 
A citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and 
Arikara Nations (MHA Nation), Raymond 
Cross has carried out unparalleled work as an 
Indian lawyer, a tribal advocate, and an Indian 
law scholar. Coyote Warrior chronicles Cross's 
incredible journey from youngest child of a 
prominent Indian family to American Indian 
rights crusader, to his two triumphant appear-
ances before the United States Supreme Court, 
to his lobbying efforts to secure compensation 
for the lost homelands of his nations. Paul 
VanDevelder's journalistic style lends much 
to these tales that appeared before only in the 
oft-stale pages of the United States Reporter and 
Congressional hearing transcripts. 
Ray Cross's childhood, as VanDevelder 
recounts, occurred when the national forces of 
Termination-era federal Indian policy mixed 
with American Congressional and military 
attempts to control the natural world. The 
Garrison Dam project, intended to regulate 
the Missouri River and provide pork-barrel 
assistance to constituent farmers, destroyed the 
homelands of the MHA Nation. VanDevelder's 
gripping story of the days when water climbed 
over Indian homes and villages and cemeteries 
is highlighted by the tale of the rescue of the 
community's sports trophies from a flooded 
high school. Today, the MHA Nation sits on 
the highlands dominated by hostile non-Indian 
border towns, their fertile and beautiful river-
bank lands engulfed by American hubris. 
Young Ray escaped reservation despair and 
urban relocation to become an Indian lawyer, 
working first for the nascent Native American 
Rights Fund. Even as an inexperienced lawyer, 
Cross won important victories in federal court 
for treaty rights in United States v. Adair and 
in Congress for recognition of the Pascua 
Yaqui Tribe. But it was Cross's decision to 
return home to represent his own Nations 
that came to establish his enduring legacy. 
Cross twice won important victories in favor 
of the Nations' sovereignty before a skeptical 
Supreme Court in Wold Engineering I and II, 
declaring a North Dakota statute depriving 
Indian tribes of the right to sue in state court to 
be preempted by federal law. In the same time 
frame, Cross led the lobbying effort to secure 
monetary compensation from Congress for the 
federal taking of tribal lands in the Garrison 
Dam debacle. Nothing short of decommission-
ing the dams can bring back the lands to the 
Nations, and it appears that Ray Cross, now an 
influential and thoughtful legal scholar, like 
his people, will not stop until their lands are 
returned. 
MATTHEW L. M. FLETCHER 
School of Law 
University of North Dakota 


Book Review: Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the Trial That Forged a Nation

DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska

University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for 2006 Book Review: Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the Trial That Forged a Nation Matthew L. M. Fletcher University of North Dakota, matthew.fletcher@law.msu.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly  Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Fletcher, Matthew L. M., "Book Review: Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the Trial That Forged a Nation" (2006). Great Plains Quarterly. 63. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/63 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. 304 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2006 Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the Trial That Forged a Nation. By Paul VanDevelder. New York: Little, Brown, 2004; Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005. vii + 321 pp. Map, photograph, appendixes, notes, bibliogra-phy, index. $25.95 cloth, $19.95 paper. A citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations (MHA Nation), Raymond Cross has carried out unparalleled work as an Indian lawyer, a tribal advocate, and an Indian law scholar. Coyote Warrior chronicles Cross's incredible journey from youngest child of a prominent Indian family to American Indian rights crusader, to his two triumphant appear-ances before the United States Supreme Court, to his lobbying efforts to secure compensation for the lost homelands of his nations. Paul VanDevelder's journalistic style lends much to these tales that appeared before only in the oft-stale pages of the United States Reporter and Congressional hearing transcripts. Ray Cross's childhood, as VanDevelder recounts, occurred when the national forces of Termination-era federal Indian policy mixed with American Congressional and military attempts to control the natural world. The Garrison Dam project, intended to regulate the Missouri River and provide pork-barrel assistance to constituent farmers, destroyed the homelands of the MHA Nation. VanDevelder's gripping story of the days when water climbed over Indian homes and villages and cemeteries is highlighted by the tale of the rescue of the community's sports trophies from a flooded high school. Today, the MHA Nation sits on the highlands dominated by hostile non-Indian border towns, their fertile and beautiful river-bank lands engulfed by American hubris. Young Ray escaped reservation despair and urban relocation to become an Indian lawyer, working first for the nascent Native American Rights Fund. Even as an inexperienced lawyer, Cross won important victories in federal court for treaty rights in United States v. Adair and in Congress for recognition of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. But it was Cross's decision to return home to represent his own Nations that came to establish his enduring legacy. Cross twice won important victories in favor of the Nations' sovereignty before a skeptical Supreme Court in Wold Engineering I and II, declaring a North Dakota statute depriving Indian tribes of the right to sue in state court to be preempted by federal law. In the same time frame, Cross led the lobbying effort to secure monetary compensation from Congress for the federal taking of tribal lands in the Garrison Dam debacle. Nothing short of decommission-ing the dams can bring back the lands to the Nations, and it appears that Ray Cross, now an influential and thoughtful legal scholar, like his people, will not stop until their lands are returned. MATTHEW L. M. FLETCHER School of Law University of North Dakota 

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1062&context=greatplainsquarterly

Book Review: Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the Trial That Forged a Nation

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

UNL | Libraries

DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska