Indigenous Nations in Postracial America: Rethinking Social Inclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 003464462096603
Author(s):  
Stephen Cornell ◽  
Miriam Jorgensen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Indigenous Nations ◽  
Policy Application

This article presents the concept of social inclusion as a means of addressing problems of poverty and social welfare and reviews the place of social inclusion in U.S. policies toward Indigenous peoples within U.S. boundaries. We argue that there are a number of problems with the present policy application of social inclusion to Indigenous peoples in the United States, including external conceptions of needs, individualization, an orientation to distributional as opposed to positional politics, and the conditionality of inclusion. We review some of the ways that Indigenous peoples are challenging the assumptions that underlie inclusionary policy goals. We then consider how a revised concept of social inclusion that comprehends the distinctiveness of Indigenous aspirations for self-determination, nationhood, and collective self-government might benefit not only Native Americans but the United States itself and how it might contribute to a postracial America. Our argument throughout is not with social inclusion as an ideal but with the particular version of it that has characterized late 20th and early 21st century policy toward Native peoples in the United States.

scholarly journals Processes of Native Nationhood: The Indigenous Politics of Self-Government

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Cornell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Indigenous Politics ◽  
Political Body ◽  
Indigenous Nations ◽  
Collective Self

Over the last three decades, Indigenous peoples in the CANZUS countries (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States) have been reclaiming self-government as an Indigenous right and practice. In the process, they have been asserting various forms of Indigenous nationhood. This article argues that this development involves a common set of activities on the part of Indigenous peoples: (1) identifying as a nation or a people (determining who the appropriate collective “self” is in self-determination and self-government); (2) organizing as a political body (not just as a corporate holder of assets); and (3) acting on behalf of Indigenous goals (asserting and exercising practical decision-making power and responsibility, even in cases where central governments deny recognition). The article compares these activities in the four countries and argues that, while contexts and circumstances differ, the Indigenous politics of self-government show striking commonalities across the four. Among those commonalities: it is a positional as opposed to a distributional politics; while not ignoring individual welfare, it measures success in terms of collective power; and it focuses less on what central governments are willing to do in the way of recognition and rights than on what Indigenous nations or communities can do for themselves.

Intolerance toward Native American Religions

2020 ◽  
pp. 125-146
Author(s):  
John Corrigan ◽  
Lynn S. Neal
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Native American ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
North America ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Native American Religions

Settler colonialism was imbued with intolerance towards Indigenous peoples. In colonial North America brutal military force was applied to the subjection and conversion of Native Americans to Christianity. In the United States, that offense continued, joined with condemnations of Indian religious practice as savagery, or as no religion at all. The violence was legitimated by appeals to Christian scripture in which genocide was commanded by God. Forced conversion to Christianity and the outlawing of Native religious practices were central aspects of white intolerance.

scholarly journals Managing the Sacred Lands of Native America

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roxanne T. Ornelas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Native American ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
The United States ◽  
Native America ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
United Nations Declaration ◽  
Sacred Lands

This research paper is a review of ten years of sacred lands management and policy in the United States. The author reports from the unique position of having been involved in national and international meetings with communities of indigenous peoples and intergovernmental stakeholders during this time. Discussion includes an historical overview of such topics as environmental justice and the 2001 Native American Sacred Lands Forum, one of the first national meetings in the United States to specifically address the sacred lands of Native Americans. Further discussion draws attention to the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007 as a gateway to better sacred lands management and policy for Native Americans in the future.

scholarly journals The Indigenous Decade in Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 140-155
Author(s):  
Christine Zuni Cruz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Central Issue ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Status ◽  
Social Concerns

This Article considers the decade, 2010 to 2019, in respect to indigenous peoples in the United States. The degree of invisibility of indigenous peoples, in spite of the existence of 574 federally recognized tribes with political status, is a central issue in major cases and events of the decade. Land and environment, social concerns, and collective identity are the three areas through which this Article considers the decade. The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, endorsed in 2010, sets a measure for the nation-state’s engagement with indigenous peoples possessed of self-determination. The criticality of a new place in the American consciousness for the political status of indigenous peoples in the United States going forward is a feature of the decade.

Science and Politics of Race in Mexico and the United States, 1910-1950

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Alejandra Rosemblatt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Native American ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
National Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Shared Networks ◽  
Politics Of Race

In this history of the social and human sciences in Mexico and the United States, Karin Alejandra Rosemblatt reveals intricate connections among the development of science, the concept of race, and policies toward indigenous peoples. Focusing on the anthropologists, sociologists, biologists, physicians, and other experts who collaborated across borders from the Mexican Revolution through World War II, Rosemblatt traces how intellectuals on both sides of the Rio Grande forged shared networks in which they discussed indigenous peoples and other ethnic minorities. In doing so, Rosemblatt argues, they refashioned race as a scientific category and consolidated their influence within their respective national policy circles. Postrevolutionary Mexican experts aimed to transform their country into a modern secular state with a dynamic economy, and central to this endeavor was learning how to “manage” racial difference and social welfare. The same concern animated U.S. New Deal policies toward Native Americans. The scientists’ border-crossing conceptions of modernity, race, evolution, and pluralism were not simple one-way impositions or appropriations, and they had significant effects. In the United States, the resulting approaches to the management of Native American affairs later shaped policies toward immigrants and black Americans, while in Mexico, officials rejected policy prescriptions they associated with U.S. intellectual imperialism and racial segregation.

scholarly journals Data as a Strategic Resource: Self-determination, Governance, and the Data Challenge for Indigenous Nations in the United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Carroll Rainie ◽  
Jennifer Lee Schultz ◽  
Eileen Briggs ◽  
Patricia Riggs ◽  
Nancy Lynn Palmanteer-Holder
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Use Of Data ◽  
Indigenous Nations ◽  
Socioeconomic Data ◽  
Inform Decision Making

Data about Indigenous populations in the United States are inconsistent and irrelevant. Federal and state governments and researchers direct most collection, analysis, and use of data about U.S. Indigenous populations. Indigenous Peoples’ justified mistrust further complicates the collection and use of these data. Nonetheless, tribal leaders and communities depend on these data to inform decision making. Reliance on data that do not reflect tribal needs, priorities, and self-conceptions threatens tribal self-determination. Tribal data sovereignty through governance of data on Indigenous populations is long overdue. This article provides two case studies of the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and their demographic and socioeconomic data initiatives to create locally and culturally relevant data for decision making.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document