Native Americans Flashcards
Are tribes different?
Tribes are widely different.
Different languages, customs, beliefs
300 different tribes last count
Afro-centrism : a single Africa. Not the same for NAs
Teepee hollywood stereotype just does not apply to all
Why is identity so complex?
More contested & controversial
Even their name - not Indian, given by white Americans
Most don’t recognise as a single ethnic identity
Most historians use both Native Indian and American as terms
Why was the census important?
Sociologists e.g. Joanne Nagel pointed this out
1960-90 the number identifying as NA tripled
Far beyond natural birth rate increase
Ethnic switching - now willing to call themselves NAs
Fluidity of ethnic identity
“American Indian” - 1960: 523,591 // 1990: 1,878,285
Why did ethnicity change?
Formal means - hypodescent:
- Amount of “Indian blood” through ancestry. This is thrust upon you not consciously chosen
- Identity through formal tribal membership. Ethnicity given to you by tribal elders
Informal means: self-identification ~ deciding for yourself what ethnic identity you want.
Remember census didn’t ask for proof, just asking what you thought you were.
Federal policy
Tangible rewards for them. Policy had always been to wipe them out or assimilate them e.g. Trail of Tears clears lands east of Mississppi
Mid C20 tried to move them off reservations and into big cities e.g. LA, San Fran, Seattle
1970 - 1/2 lived in cities. Plan was to educate them and make them english speaking. Set up centres within city, most inter tribal
Blue Clark: “ sought refuge from the terrible loss of identity that marked modern urban existence”
LBJ’s War on Poverty - some of the aid specifically targeted ethnic groups. Focused on living standards etc rather than race.
Around the same time federal govt began to settle land claims as the result of the Trail of Tears movement
What 2 themes explain the shift in ethnic identity?
The CRM had an important effect on all ethnic groups
The material gains from being NA - increasingly profitable land
Ethnic pride from upsurge in activism that promoted pride in ethnic identity
1978: $657 million plus had been given out
1980: Passamoquoddy & Penobscot tribes in Maine given $27 million for 300,000 acres
Red Power
AIM (American Indian Movement)
Organised 1968 in Minneapolis
Highlighted the plight of those who had resisted assimilation and stayed on reservations
Life on reservations
80% didnt have running water
8 times more likely to get TB
Unemployment - alcoholism & gambling is high
64 av. life expectancy, 44 on reservations
Increasingly critical of federal gov
Valuable lands - 2/3 uranium deposits
Imposed government rights - americans own to core of the earth
Collective grievance - CRM influences: students demanding to be heard, non violent
Alcatraz
Claimed as Native American land 20 Nov 1969 - 11 June 1971
Inclusive movement - Indians of all Nations.
Proclamation emphasises the signifiers of shared identity e.g. religion, culture, history
Gained national and international attention
So many had a raised ethnic pride from Red Power
“An awakening that changed the course of my life” - Wilma Mankiller (Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma)
Other protests
Thanksgiving 1970, Plymouth Rock: painted the rock red & captured the replica ship of the Puritans
Trail of Broken Treaties: caravan began in west and picked up tribal members en route to Washington DC. 2,000 protestors. Eve of 1972 pres election - chosen to get national attention (like CRM)
Equal Protection
Feb 1972: AIM pressure. 2 brothers (Melvin and Leslie Hare) arrested and policeman charged of coverup. First time in state history a white man had been convicted of the murder of an NA (Raymond Yellow Thunder)
Pine Ridge: “The Mississippi of the North” - Dennis Banks
demonstrations of lack of justice escalated.
Stand off between activists and federal forces under General Alexander Haig.
Tried to encircle them - crushing force, one sided
17 armour personnel carriers
Claimed they did it because occupied Wounded Knee and taken hostages - press pointed out this was false, no longer allowed to report
Political attempt to kill off indian movement - ended 7 may 1973
2 shot - claims 13 more killed
15 convictions of AIM members for silly things
Conclusions
Similar in timing, style, targeting to CRM
Stokely Carmichael took part in Wounded Knee
Difference: trying to re-establish rights they once had, reclaiming land once theirs
Knock on effect on Black Power
Exemplifies ethnic identity
