" Sovereignty on Trial provides a deep, yet accessible, analysis of the Supreme Court's so-called Marshall Trilogy of cases, which established the very shaky foundation upon which Indigenous property and political rights have been based for two centuries. Garrison offers a straightforward discussion and analysis of the importance of each opinion within historical contexts, along with competing views of legal scholars, historians, and philosophers. This is not the usual run-of-the mill, dry legal analysis. He is to be commended for a unique and worthy contribution that broadens the conversation and audience on this long-studied subject."-- David E. Wilkins , coeditor of Native Voices: American Indian Identity and Resistance " Sovereignty on Trial offers a masterful account of the Cherokee Nation's struggle against the land grab and removal during the early republic. Tim Garrison revisits the Marshall cases and how their legal ambiguity simultaneously advanced and undermined Indigenous sovereignty. More than a study of the past, this book shows how the same legal contradictions define Native Americans' present struggles against an ongoing settler colonial encroachment.
"-- Matthias Voigt , author of Reinventing the Warrior: Masculinity in the American Indian Movement, 1968-1973 "In Sovereignty on Trial , Tim Alan Garrison beautifully weaves together storytelling with legal theory and history with critical analysis. This allowed him to write a book that is deep, comprehensive, and nuanced but also accessible. Providing historical, political, and legal contexts to understand the Marshall Trilogy and other US Supreme Court cases involving the Cherokee Nation, this book also looks to the future and alongside Indigenous scholars and leaders, imagines the restoration of Indigenous sovereignty, with or without the help of federal courts."-- Dana Lloyd , author of Land Is Kin: Sovereignty, Religious Freedom, and Indigenous Sacred Sites "Not since Jill Norgren's The Cherokee Cases has a scholar so effectively narrated the stories of the Marshall decisions in such sophisticated and accessible fashion. That Garrison covers not just Cherokee Nation and Worcester but the entire Trilogy and sets his exploration of them within the larger context of US constitutional law makes this remarkable achievement that much more impressive. Insightful, engaging, and attuned to the agency of Native and non-Native actors, this book offers a clear-eyed analysis of the past, present, and future of tribal sovereignty."-- Daniel M. Cobb , Ph.
D., author of Say We Are Nations: Documents of Politics and Protest in Indigenous America since 1887.