The hualapai case was the culminating event in a legal and intellectual revolution that transformed indian law and ushered in a new way of writing indian history that provided legal grounds for native land claims but making indian law is about more than a legal decision. How is the validity of a peoples history determined what impact do those decisions have on the legal political and social frameworks that govern their exist we use cookies to enhance your experience on our websiteby continuing to use our website you are agreeing to our use of cookies. The hualapai case was the culminating event in a legal and intellectual revolution that transformed indian law and ushered in a new way of writing indian history that provided legal grounds for native land claims but making indian law is about more than a legal decision its the story of hualapai activists and eventually sympathetic lawyers who challenged both the santa fe railroad and the us government to a courtroom showdown over the meaning of indian property rights and the . Making indian law the hualapai land case and the birth of ethnohistory the lamar series in western history christian w mcmillen in 1941 after decades of struggling to hold on to the remainder of their aboriginal home the hualapai indians finally took their case to the supreme court and won. At the heart of the hualapai campaign to save the reservation was documenting the history of hualapai land use making indian law showcases the central role that the hualapai and their lawyers