About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

83 Prison J. 3 (2003)

handle is hein.journals/prsjrnl83 and id is 1 raw text is: 















                               THE WEB OF STEEL AND

                           THE HEART OF THE EAGLE:

                     THE CONTEXTUAL INTERFACE

                       OF AMERICAN CORRECTIONS

                               AND NATIVE AMERICANS

                               WILLIAM G. ARCHAMBEAULT
                      Louisiana   State University  at Baton  Rouge



This article introduces this special edition of The Prison Journal, entitled American
Corrections andNative Americans. Examinedfirst is the historic web of steel that cre-
ates the context of interface between correctional control and American Indian Peo-
ples. The web of steel is a metaphor for the policies and actions of European and
American  governments that enslave the eagle spirit of Indian Peoples to be free.
Strands of this web include, but are not limited to, slavery, ethnic cleansing, confine-
ment and starvation on reservations, Indian boarding schools, continuing theft of
Indian lands and natural resources, correctional control and institutionalized dis-
crimination, crime victimization, correctional control, and the benign neglect of aca-
demic criminology and criminal justice. For Indian Peoples, being under some form
of correctional control is a continuation of ancestral experiences. The second major
part of this article introduces the contributing authors to this special edition and their
respective articles.

Keywords:  web  of steel; correctional control; native diversity; institutional-
            ized discrimination






   On behalf of the other authors of this publication, I would like to thank Rosemary Gido,
Ph.D., editor of the historically renowned The Prison Journal, for her enthusiasm, patience, and
help in assembling this special edition. When the idea of this special edition was first introduced
several years ago, Rosemary enthusiastically embraced the idea. Her support for the project ran
counter to a long history of benign neglect on the part of mainstream criminological and criminal
justice journals, which have historically ignored American Indian crime, justice, and corrections
issues. Her support marks one of the very few times in current history that a major academic and
corrections-field-specific journal dedicated itself to American Indian issues. Her leadership in
this area prompted at least one other journal to attempt a special edition on the topic.
THE PRISON JOURNAL, Vol. 83 No. 1, March 2003 3-25
DOI: 10.1177/0032885502250376
D 2003 Sage Publications
                                                                          3

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most