Racial and Ethnic Politics in the US
Native Americans

Today:  2.5 mln 2000 census                     
Only 41% live on reservations
31.2% lived below the poverty line (1990 Census)

Standards of living both urban and on reservation tend to be very low – America’s most distressed minority

Urban: in NYC 40% unemployed                     
8 out of 9 families below poverty level


On reservations:
Chronic unemployment    
more than 50% on most                                              
95% on the Rosebud Reservation (SD)
75% of employed work for Fed govt            
e.g. Bureau of Indian Affairs                            
1/4 lack indoor plumbing
1/7 lack electricity                                   
many lack water                                                 
low rates of education                                                
65.6% teens today graduate from HS        
80.9% national average

high rates of alcoholism and suicide among young

for 25-34 year olds rate of terminal cirrhosis of the liver 3-4 times the national average
alcohol implicated in 75-80% of Native suicides

Violent crime Native Americans are three times more likely as whites and twice as likely as Blacks to be victims of rape or aggravated assault


Tribal Enterprise:  success stories

Choctaw (MS) one of 10 largest employers in the state – 8,000 employees;
           own 5 auto-parts factories, a greeting card operation;

Passamaquoddy (ME) – diversified investments from land settlement; profits from sale of cement plant; own patent to          antipollution technology (scrubbers)

           
Salt River Pima Maricopa (AZ)

          Jicarilla Apache (NM)

          Devils Lake Sioux (ND)

          Cherokee Nation (OK)

     

The “New Buffalo” – gaming

About half of all reservations have some gaming; Most successful:  Mashantucket Pequot (CT), Seminole (Miami, FL), Cabazon (Palm Springs, CA)

 

I. History
 A.  “pre-Colombian”
 6-8 million Native Americans

Speaking more than 300 languages

Advanced civilizations

 
B. Conquest and Colonialism
at first reciprocal

Trade, teaching

 

C.  Basis of conflicts:

economic
geographic
cultural/religious

 

D.  Religious differences, world view

 

E.   Languages – oral tradition

vs. Judeo-Christian written tradition

 

 

F.  Social organization, values: collective, clan, tribal

vs. Western individualism, nuclear family

 

G.  Physical characteristics – element of definition of minority group

 

 

H. Stereotypes propagated by white Europeans

1) noble savage - stoic, pacifist, placid, quiet, romaticized image
 

2) uncivilized, dirty, warlike, etc.     

today - sports mascots

     3) drunks


I. alcohol introduced by Europeans "firewater"

cultural/structural reasons for alcoholism

internalization of difference

social disorganization
 


 

J. Native American influences on "American" culture

1) Political - Iroquois - confederation of six

tribes with each having own legislatures

conference committees
 
2) Linguistic-more than 500 words –

skunk, squash, moose, wigwam, tobacco

-thousands of names of towns, states, rivers, lakes, mountains

3) objects/tools

- canoes, kayaks, snowshoes, moccasins, pipes -influences on jewelry, clothing, art, architecture, literature

                    4) knowledge of herbs, plants,

agriculture - corn, potatoes, cotton, maple sugar, pumpkins, avocadoes, cacao

 
II.  American Government Policies Toward Native Americans

A.    Early American History

1. British est'd policy of negotiating, treaty making

2. early American state practice same - "quasinational status"

a.usually broken especially land agreements

b. also often boondoggled them - unfair agreements

3.  c. 1787 - NW Territory Ordinance - Congress declares itself responsible for NA property, rights, liberty;  not tested until 1830s


B.  Citizenship

1.  Cherokee Nation v. GA (1831)

Tribes are “in a state of pupilage”
a minor child under the care of a guardian (US government)

Could be denied civil, political, economic rights because

“the framers of our constitution had not the Indian tribes in view, when they opened the Courts of the nation to controversies between a state or the citizens thereof.”
 

2. Elk v. Wilkins (1884)
Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment did not extend citizenship to Indians

Anymore than it did to subjects of any foreign government

Thus, neither aliens nor citizens
 


 

3.  Dawes Act 1887
Extended US citizenship to Indians who voluntarily leave tribe to become land owners; those remaining with tribe remained non-citizens

4.  1901 Congress grants US citizenship to the “5 civilized tribes” displaced by Indian Removal Act

Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole

5.  1919 US Citizenship granted Indians who served in WWI


 

6.  1924 Indian Citizenship Act
only then did Indians gain right to vote
still excluded by state constitutions in AZ, NM, UT

States argued they were not citizens of the states, only of the US;

UT had to establish residency in non-reservation counties

Still denied vote through these means until the 1950s and 60s!

 



  B.  Federal Policy toward Native Nations

Policy 1: Concentration through treaties 1789 - 1830

Policy 2: Confinement 1830-1870

Policy 3: Allotment and Assimilation  1870-1933

Policy 4: Indian New Deal 1930s

Policy 5:  Relocation and  Termination 1950s

Policy 6:  Self-determination 1960s onward
 

 


Self-determination
Courts - now have delivered several decisions in favor of land settlements against states and fed govt

Now many tribes –
gaming and industry, education

Natural Resources
water stolen from under them -
Army Corps of Eng - dams now

Some tribes possess a lot of land with coal and uranium deposits
businesses trying to buy them out

Also some consider allowing location of waste disposal on tribal land in exchange for millions of dollars- including nuclear waste
Yucca Mountain

 
III.  Native American Today
A.  see Socio-economic data presented in McClain and Stewart Table 2.1

B.  Map of Geographical Distribution of Native Americans – Map 2.3
 

IV.  Native American Political Behavior
A.  Party ID – not strong; lean toward Democrats

B.  Voting – no Census Data; some evidence to suggest lower levels of registration than among whites

What can we infer from SES?

C.  Interest Groups
Native American Rights Fund
Their 1993 suit forced Clinton to settle land claim with the Catawba tribe of SC

Also won mineral rights case for the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of OK (1992)

Worked to protect voting rights in SD, NY, AL