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9780674001848

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This is an account that needed to be written. At least two [other] books...recount in detail Peltier's controversial conviction for the deaths of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge reservation in 1975, but no one has written about the Banks/Means trial in such a detailed and scholarly way...Sayer writes readable and often eloquent prose. The meticulous notes contain only the most significant legal citations; Sayer's research is primarily from court transcripts, newspaper accounts, and an impressive collection of interviews with participants.--Sandra K. Baringer, University of California-Riverside H-Net Review

John Sayer's book powerfully articulates...indigenous activism in the United States by examining in significant detail the political/legal history of the trials of the key Indian players, particularly the conspiracy trial of American Indian Movement (AIM) leaders Dennis Banks and Russell Means, who were involved in the 1973 takeover of the small hamlet of Wounded Knee, on the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota...An outstanding multi-disciplinary and thoroughly researched account which clearly explains the intersection and overlapping of the important forces that shaped events leading to the Wounded Knee trials, the trial deliberations, and the complicated developments in the wake of the trials... Ghost Dancing the Law is a richly textured and subtle account of one of the most important criminal trials in the later part of the twentieth century. It explains in lively prose how resourceful and resistant indigenous peoples are (for example, although various Indian 'images' were manipulated by the media, the Indian activists engaged in their share of manipulation of the media) and how prominent a role the media plays in public perceptions of indigenous peoples...I strongly recommend this book. -- David E. Wilkins Law and Politics Book Review

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John William Sayer is Honorary Fellow at the Institute for Legal Studies, University of Wisconsin Law School.

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