Katrina Jagodinsky’s enlightening history is the first to focus on Indigenous women of the Southwest and Pacific Northwest and the ways they dealt with the challenges posed by the existing legal regimes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In most western states, it was difficult if not impossible for Native women to inherit property, raise mixed-race children, or take legal action in the event of rape or abuse. Through the experiences of six Indigenous women who fought for personal autonomy and the rights of their tribes, Jagodinsky explores a long yet generally unacknowledged tradition of active critique of the U.S. legal system by female Native Americans.

Each chapter exhibit on this site features primary sources and book excerpts pertaining to the six women featured in each chapter: Lucia Martinez, Nora Jewell, Juana Walker, Rebecca Lena Graham, Dinah Foote Hood, and Louisa Enick. Readers can use this site to explore firsthand the materials that document these women's engagement with American legal regimes threatening their bodies, lands, and progeny, and teachers are encouraged to consider the site as a companion to the book in their classrooms. 

Additional pages feature information on the book and the author, and materials useful for instructors.