UA News

University of Minnesota professor David Wilkins is the latest in a series of indigenous scholars to lecture at the UA.

Noted political scientist David E. Wilkins will speak on Thursday as part of the Vine Deloria Jr. Distinguished Indigenous Scholars Speaker Series. Wilkins will address the problem of enrollment and membership in modern Native nations in a talk titled "Putting the Noose on Tribal Citizenship: Modern Banishment and Disenrollment."

Wilkins is a professor of American Indian studies, political science, law and American studies at the University of Minnesota. He is a member of the Lumbee Nation and has done extensive research in comparative politics, American political theory, federal Indian policy, tribal governance and the history of colonialism and indigenous peoples. 

Wilkins holds a doctorate in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He was among the first group of students to receive a master's degree in political science and American Indian policy from The University of Arizona in 1982. 

He has taught at Navajo Community College in Tsaile, Ariz., and was an assistant professor of political science and American Indian studies at the UA from 1991 to 1997.

Wilkins has published numerous books and articles dealing directly with American Indian sovereignty, political participation and governance. Among his best known works are "American Indian Sovereignty and the U.S. Supreme Court," "American Indian Politics and the American Political System," "Uneven Ground: American Indian Sovereignty and Federal Law" with UA professor K. Tsianina Lomawaima and "Tribes, Treaties and Constitutional Tribulations" with the late Vine Deloria Jr. Wilkins has just published "Documents of Native American Political Development," a collection of materials that traces the history of American Indian governance until the 1930s.

Wilkins is the fourth Vine Deloria Jr. Distinguished Indigenous Scholar. This unique distinction was developed to honor Deloria, a former member of the UA political science faculty and a founding member of the UA's American Indian Studies Program. The mission of the program is to recognize the accomplishments of indigenous scholars and invite them to share their experiences and expertise with members of the UA and Tucson communities.