The Iowa law school journal, Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems, interviewed Richard and Jean — and the interview is published here.
Here is a provocative comment:
Jean and I have written about the difficulties of “crossover” writing, in the pages of American Indian Law Review. We think it is a mistake for a minority scholar to write too much of his or her work with a white audience in mind. If you do, you end up pulling your punches and choosing words and topics that will resonate with your audience. Even the very vocabulary in which you write–terms like “villager,” “folk medicine,” “undocumented alien,” “tribe,” “hut,” and “merit”–carry meanings that render your people one-down. Sometimes it feels better to write in your native language or vernacular and for an audience consisting of people like you.
Turtle Talk 