Quotessence
Home / Authors / Robert A. Williams, Jr.
Robert A. Williams, Jr.

Robert A. Williams, Jr. Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllSupreme CourtThinkingWesternDecisionJusticePeopleWorldGivingMeanReasonSavageryTryingWarCitingExerciseHistoricalHorribleHuman RightsImportantIndigenous

Famous Robert A. Williams, Jr. Quotes

“What this ideology, what this myth about savagery did was really excuse America for the disappearance of the Indian. It wasn't our fault. They were just an inferior race. And so John Marshall adopts that. And the tragedy and the present-day circumstances of that decision are that those racial attitudes are so deeply embedded in these foundational principles of American Indian law.”

DecisionAttitudeCircumstancesTragedyExcuseMythIdeologyEmbeddedAmerican IndianSavagery
Author:Robert A. Williams, Jr.
Create image

“In fact, Native American Rights Fund has a project called the Supreme Court Project. And quite frankly, it's focused on trying to keep cases out of the Supreme Court. This Supreme Court, Justice Roberts is actually, hard to believe, was probably worse than the Rehnquist Court. If you look at the few decisions that it's issued.”

TryingBelieveJusticeDecisionFocusedNativeFundNative AmericanSupreme CourtHard To BelieveSupreme Court Justice
Author:Robert A. Williams, Jr.
Create image

“One was a horrible case called Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe which denied tribes the right to criminally prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes on their reservations. That decision has had horrible consequences for law enforcement on Indian reservations. But in that opinion Justice William Rehnquist cites language from the 1830s to explain why whites didn't trust tribes to exercise criminal jurisdiction. They were savages.”

LanguageJusticeDecisionOpinionCrimeExerciseConsequenceHorribleCommitLaw EnforcementCiting
Author:Robert A. Williams, Jr.
Create image

“If you're an Indian, you could be very anxious about some of the Supreme Court's decisions, some of the decisions of policy makers, so maybe a little bit of irony there. But I think our "Savage Anxieties," when I titled the book, I really wanted to focus people on the challenge that tribes in this country, as well as indigenous peoples around the world, are confronting Western civilization with.”

PeopleThinkingWorldBookCountryChallengesDecisionFocusPolicyAnxietyWesternIronyAnxiousSupreme CourtIndigenousIndigenous People
Author:Robert A. Williams, Jr.
Create image