America Becoming Racial Trends and Their Consequences: Volume I (2001) / Chapter Skim
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5. Trends Among American Indians in the United States
5. Trends Among American Indians in the United States
Pages 135-169
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From page 135... ...
In 1983, Dobyns used depopulation ratios from epidemics along with possible carrying capacities to assert some 18 million native Americans for North America i.e., northern Mexico as well as the present-day United States, Canada, and Greenland (Dobyns, 1983~. Most scholars now agree that Mooney's population estimate significantly underestimated aboriginal population size for the area north of the Rio Grande and, thus, the baseline from which the area's aboriginal popu1The sections of this paper on demography, education, and repatriation were drawn freely from my chapters on the same topics in Thornton (1998~.
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From page 136... ...
A reason for his underestimate, scholars now realize, was Mooney's assumption that little population decline had occurred prior to his dates for the beginning of an extended European presence in a region. In fact, it seems that prior depopulation had occurred in most, if not all, regions.
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From page 137... ...
, a result of both decreases in mortality rates and increases in fertility rates. In fact, fertility has remained higher for American Indians than for the U.S.
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Changing self-identification has generally been attributed to racial and ethnic consciousness-raising during the 1960s and 1970s, as well as American Indian political mobilization during the period.4 If Inuits and Aleuts are added to the more than 1.8 million American Indians enumerated in the 1990 Census, there was a total of more than 1.9 million native Americans in the United States in 1990 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1994~.
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From page 139... ...
. lived on 314 reservations and trust lands; half of these 218,290 American Indians, 25 Inuits, and 5 Aleuts lived on the 10 largest reservations and trust lands (Table 5-3; U.S.
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A redistribution of American Indians also occurred through urban6The situation in Canada is somewhat different. In Canada one must be registered under the Indian Act of Canada to be an "official" Indian.
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Bureau of the Census, 1992; Thornton, 1997~. Important in this urbanization was the migration to cities and towns, some of which occurred under the BIA relocation program, which began in 1950 to assist American Indians in moving from reservations and rural areas to selected urban areas (Thornton, 1994~.
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From page 142... ...
Only about 10 percent of those on reservations reported no affiliation, whereas 30 percent of those in urban areas reported no affiliation (Thornton, 1987~. The 1980 and 1990 Censuses report no comparable urban/reservation data; however, 25 percent of the American Indians in the 1980 Census and 15 percent of those in the 1990 Census reported no tribal affiliation (Thornton, 1994; U.S.
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From page 143... ...
It may even make sense at some point in the future to speak mainly of Native American ancestry or ethnicity (Thornton, 1997~. SOVEREIGNTY AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION The idea of American Indian tribal sovereignty within the United States and the related issue of political participation within the larger American society have long been important issues for American Indians.
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From page 144... ...
government adopted policies more or less aimed at ending the special legal status of American Indian tribes, and in fact, 61 tribes were officially terminated" (Thornton, 1987:195) i.e., no longer recognized by the federal government for the purposes of having relations.
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From the Civil War until the 1980s, however, American Indians were a "moral" but not "powerful" minority political group. With the reaffirmation and reestablishment of American Indian tribes as legal entities since the 1970s, and the accompanying economic wellbeing of some of these tribes, however, American Indian tribes are becoming increasingly important and increasingly sophisticated political actors, something we have not seen since the subjugation of the great Sioux ~ , ~ Nations around 1890.
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From page 146... ...
Individual economic well-being, nevertheless, is an important objective of tribal economic development; and American Indian tribes and individuals engage in virtually the entire spectrum of economic activities available in modern society, ranging from small service industries to manufacturing to extraction of natural resources fishing, logging, hunting, etc. In some instances, the ability to exploit such resources has involved extensive legal issues engendered by American Indians' unique legal status in American society (Olson, 1988~.
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From page 147... ...
Similarly, there are Inuit communities in Alaska who still cherish their traditional, subsistence lifestyles and are determined to preserve them. EDUCATION OF AMERICAN INDIANS Europeans sought to convert to Christianity and educate ("civilize," as they defined it)
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Nor did American Indians given a Christian education in early colleges necessarily stay Christian (though they may have stayed "educated"~. William Byrd wrote of American Indian students educated at William and Mary, "They have been taught to read and write, and have been carefully Instructed in the Principles of the Christian Religion, till they came to be men.
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Its 1769 charter states it is "for the education and instruction of Youth of the Indian Tribes in this land in reading, writing, and all parts of Learning which shall appear necessary and expedient for civilizing and christianizing Children of Pagans as well as in all liberal Arts and Sciences; and also of English Youth and any others" (Elliott and Chambers, 1934:179~. Few American Indians enrolled or graduated from Dartmouth in the ensuing two centuries, however.8 Government Schools As Whites struggled with the idea of the new country they were creating, they sought to place American Indians within it.
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The Indians were some of the Kiowa, Comanche, and Cheyenne former prisoners, members of southern plains tribes, involved in the "Outbreak of 1874" during the winter of 1874-1875. They had been imprisoned at Fort Marion, Florida.9 Other American Indian students soon followed, and American Indians continued to attend Hampton until 1923.
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Slowly, schools established for American Indians began to incorporate aspects of American Indian history and culture into their curricula. Following the Meriam Report, the number of boarding schools decreased, as students were increasingly channeled to day schools and, especially, public schools.
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It is still only for American Indians, and provides higher education to federally recognized tribal members. In 1995, it had the full-time equivalent of 890 students, representing some 147 tribes.
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American Indian history was virtually limited to literature covering American IndianWhite relationships, as though American Indians had no other history as a group or individually as nations. And, finally, American Indian studies reacted against the almost total lack of study of American Indian societies
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Other subjects included federal Indian law (typically not "Native American law," as traditionally practiced) , the education of American Indians, and American Indian languages and linguistics.
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However, the full potential of American Indian studies is unrealized in most American Indian studies programs, in whatever fashion they are organized. REPATRIATION, HEALING THE TRAUMA OF HISTORY, AND TRIBAL RENAISSANCE The repatriation of American Indian human remains as well as the repatriation of funerary objects and other cultural objects, identified as "objects of patrimony" i.e., something owned by the entire peoplesuch as wampum belts, or sacred objects such as medicine bundles, is occurring today because of determined efforts by American Indians to achieve legal changes in American society.
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After the Civil War, as the former Union Army turned its attention westward to confront American Indians on the plains, the Army Medical Museum sought to update its collections in light of the new conflict, as well as obtain other types of specimens.
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The fact that many of the human remains and objects were obtained by grave robbing, theft, and fraudulent acts adds to American Indian discomfort and further legitimates claims for repatriation. Virtually all of the 4,000 crania at the Army Medical Museum were eventually transferred to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, to be added to the remains of approximately 14,500 other American Indians, along with non-American Indians.
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It is felt that refusal to return the remains of American Indian warriors killed in battle implies that these fighters and civilians killed in battles and massacres are less deserving of an honorable burial than American servicemen and -women who died for the United States. American Indians have attempted to legally prevent the collection of their human remains and cultural objects for more than a century (Cole, 1985~.
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From page 159... ...
Not only has the success of the repatriation movement revitalized Native America by providing new-found self-esteem, the task of actually repatriating human remains and cultural objects has also revitalized communities by bringing members together in the struggle as well as reaffirming important knowledge about many cultural and sacred objects. It is not always an easy undertaking, however; but the end result is worth it.
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From page 160... ...
NMAI also mandates a repatriation review committee "to monitor and review the inventory, identification, and return of Indian human remains and Indian funerary objects." The committee is composed of five individuals, at least three of whom are selected from individuals nominated by American Indian groups. The amendment to NMAI added two members to the committee, both of whom are to be "traditional religious leaders." In October 1990, Public Law 101-601, the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)
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American Indian values, wishes, and perspectives must be respected by scholars. Although some disciplines such as anthropology have histories of applied work with American Indians, the repatriation process is providing new challenges for the application of scholarly disciplines to real-life concerns of American Indians.
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From page 162... ...
In October 1993, all were being returned to their people in a joint repatriation effort made by the Smithsonian and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard, which had obtained skeletal remains from Antelope Creek. At the ceremony, the bones were officially turned over to an impressive Northern Cheyenne delegation, represented by the tribal chair, the Crazy Dogs society of warriors, the Elk Horn society, Sun Dance priests, four women who were fourth-generation descendants of Dull Knife, and, most important, lames Black Wolf, Keeper of the Sacred Buffalo Hat.
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, which has not allowed them the more healthy griev~7As chairman of the Smithsonian Institutions Native American Repatriation Review committee, I attended the ceremony in Washington, D.C. It was even more meaningful for me because my mother had died a few days before.
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Other Indian groups are not so fortunate." 19The Seventh Calvary was the regiment commanded by General George A Custer, who was defeated by the Sioux, Northern Cheyenne and other tribes on June 25, 1876, in the Battle of Greasy Grass, or, as more well-known, the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
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The return of the objects to the descendants of those killed occurred in September 1998. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS Trends in demographics, tribal sovereignty, economic development, education, and repatriation are extremely important for American Indians in American society.
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From page 166... ...
It has the potential to fundamentally alter American conceptions about American Indians and bring important new knowledge bases within the realm of academe; unfortunately, that potential is largely unfilled. Finally, the legally mandated repatriation of American Indian human remains and objects back to the native communities from which they came and to which many would say they belong is fundamentally altering the relationships of American Indians with society and academe.
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Harris, D 1994 The 1990 Census count of American Indians: What do the numbers really mean?
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1976 Provisional evaluation of the 1970 Census count of American Indians. Demogra phy 13:397409.
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From page 169... ...
1994 1990 Census of the Population: Characteristics of American Indians by Tribe and Language. Washington, D.C.: U.S.
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