LEGAL REPORT

LEGAL REPORT

Philip Deloria, a descendant of the famous Sioux (Dakota) leader Tipi Sapa, is a well-known and highly regarded scholar. He teaches history, American culture, and Native American studies at the University of Michigan. Both of his books, Playing Indian (1998) and Indians in Unexpected Places (2004), were awarded prizes for academic excellence. The following essay appears in the book A New Literary History of America by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors (2009).

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Reading the Genre

Question

1. Deloria identifies several key terms in this report. What are they? How does Deloria explain them and their importance?

Question

2. What strategy does Deloria use to organize information? (Hint: Take another look at the key terms from question 1.) How does the structure of the report make it accessible and easy to read? How does Deloria’s organization help readers follow his argument?

Question

3. In his conclusion, Deloria asks readers to consider how this legal history reaches into “a series of presents.” What are some of the ways this happens? Where can we see the impact of the Cherokee Nation decision today?

Question

4. Deloria quotes several historical figures and summarizes the work of four legal researchers in this report. How does he manage to include so much information efficiently, and how does he use it to support his thesis, or main idea? (See “Find reliable sources,”; “Finding and developing materials,”; “Base reports on the best available sources”; and Chapter 40, “Evaluating Sources”.)

Question

5. WRITING: Deloria begins his report by stating, “This is a story about the law.” The same is true, in a way, of any legal report. Choose a brief legal report from the Pew Research Web site (http://www.pewtrusts.org/) and rewrite it as a short story. Try to follow the simplest narrative structure you can: Once upon a time there was a legal problem; it affected this group of characters; they decided to do some things about it; there was a struggle and a series of compromises and resolutions; this was the conclusion.

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