Indian Heirship Lands
The Lake Traverse Experience
Michael L. Lawson
15 pages
A South Dakota Historical Society Press eBook Short
Lawson's work on American Indian lands opened the discussion of what government policies and bureaucracy have done to heirship of lands on American Indian reservations in South Dakota, illuminating for the first time the harsh truths of this problematic topic.
Stark descriptions of what ownership of land really means make this essay a compelling and ominous read. Lawson later expanded his work into other essays and then into the South Dakota Historical Society Press book Dammed Indians Revisited .
His essay, available here as an ebook short won the Western History Association's Ray Allen Billington Award in 1983.
Michael L. Lawson is a historical consultant with Morgan, Angel & Associates in Washington, DC. He has served as historian for the National Park Service, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and has written extensively on American Indian history.
