Steve Russell, an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, was a poet, journalist and academic, as well as a former trial court judge and Associate Professor Emeritus of Criminal Justice, Indiana University Bloomington.
Russell was frequently critical of "wannabe" Indians - that is to say, people who claim falsely and without tribal recognition to have a Native American identity.
Russell's Sequoyah Rising: Problems in Post-Colonial Tribal Governance is probably his best-known work.
Tom Holm wrote in Wíčazo Ša Review that "Russell's concise and insightful presentation of the course of American Indian policy is exceptional and should immediately be adopted by all who teach courses on Native American history and law,"[4] while the European Journal of American Studies noted that "Although clear that much of the blame for this must lie with a combination of federal government attempts to destroy Native control over Native affairs and a colonial culture of welfare dependency, nonetheless Russell argues that the power to self-organize means that many of the solutions lie in Indian hands.
Numerous other publications in the Austin American-Statesman, The Texas Observer, Newsweek, Philadelphia City Paper, Harper’s Magazine, and too many members of the Underground Press Syndicate to list.