identity

Reviving Yurok: Saving one of California's 90 languages

Producer
BBC News
Year

California is home to the greatest diversity of Native American tribes in the US, and even today, 90 identifiable languages are still spoken there. Many are dying out as the last fluent speakers pass away and English dominates. But one tribe is having success reviving the Yurok language, which was on the verge of extinction and now is being taught in schools...

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Leithead, Alastair. "Reviving Yurok: Saving one of California's 90 languages." BBC News. June 25, 2013. Video documentary. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23053593, accessed October 18, 2023)

Wilma Mankiller: Challenges Facing 21st Century Indigenous People

Producer
Simon Ortiz and Labriola Center Lecture on Indigenous Land, Culture and Community
Year

Recorded on October 2, 2008 at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Wilma Mankiller, former principal chief of the Cherokee Nation and internationally known Native rights activist talks about “Challenges Facing 21st Century Indigenous People.” Mankiller talks of the diversity and uniqueness of the over 300 million Indigenous Peoples of the world. She also talks of indigenous duty and sense of responsibility to conserve and protect the natural world and how cultures with no memories of their origins have little understanding of their place in the world...

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Mankiller, Wilma. "Challenges Facing 21st Century Indigenous People." Simon Ortiz and Labriola Center Lecture on Indigenous Land, Culture and Community. Arizona State University. Phoenix, Arizona. October 2, 2008. Lecture. (https://vimeo.com/2332389, accessed August 21, 2012)

Redefining Tigua Citizenship

Year

The materials in this informational guide are designed to provide you with important background information ”such as Tigua history, tribal population profiles, and fiscal impacts” related to upcoming membership criteria changes. Project Tiwahu is an Ysleta del Sur Pueblo-wide initiative to reclaim its membership determination, thus bringing the tribe into an era of true self-governance...

Native Nations
Citation

Ysleta del Sur Pueblo. "Redefining Tigua Citizenship." Project Tiwahu Informational Guide. Ysleta del Sur Pueblo. Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, Texas. 2014. Guide. (https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/hpaied/files/projecttiwahu-final.pdf?m=1639579190, accessed June 7, 2023)

Constitutions Fact Sheet

Year

The National Centre for First Nations Governance developed this quick reference for Native nations who are discussing constitutions and constitutional reform. 

Resource Type
Citation

National Centre for First Nations Governance. "Constitutions Fact Sheet." National Centre for First Nations Governance. Ottawa, Ontario. Canada. 2013. Paper. (https://fngovernance.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Constitutions_Fact_Sheet.pdf, accessed March 29, 2023)

Declaration of Tsawwassen Identity & Nationhood

Year

We are Tsawwassen People "People facing the sea", descendants of our ancestors who exercised sovereign authority over our land for thousands of years. Tsawwassen People were governed under the advice and guidance of leaders, highborn women, headmen, and speakers through countless generations...

Native Nations
Citation

Tsawwassen First Nation. Declaration of Tsawwassen Identity & Nationhood. Tsawwassen First Nation. Tsawwassen, British Columbia, Canada. 2009. (http://www.tsawwassenfirstnation.com/pdfs/TFN-About/TFN-Vision-and-Manda..., accessed April 3, 2023)

Navajo Cultural Identity: What can the Navajo Nation bring to the American Indian Identity Discussion Table?

Author
Year

American Indian identity in the twenty-first century has become an engaging topic. Recently, discussions on Ward Churchill’s racial background became a “hotbed” issue on the national scene. A few Native nations, such as the Pechanga and Isleta Pueblo, have disenrolled members. Scholars such as Circe Sturm, in Blood Politics: Race, Culture, and Identity in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and Eva Marie Garroutte, in Real Indians: Identity and Survival of Native America, have examined American Indian identity. More attention is being devoted to understanding the implications of racial identity in Native nations. What have we learned from these studies? We have learned that an imposed enrollment system has impacted Native nations...

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Lee, Lloyd L. "Navajo Cultural Identity: What can the Navajo Nation bring to the American Indian Identity Discussion Table?" Wicazo Sa Review. Fall 2006. Paper. (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/206347, accessed November 8, 2013) 

What is Blood Quantum?

Year

This article will explore the history of using blood quantum to categorize American Indian identity. The measuring of blood and the concept of 'Indianness' is a complex and difficult subject...

Resource Type
Citation

Oneida Trust and Enrollment Committee. "What is Blood Quantum?" Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin. Oneida, Wisconsin. July 27, 2013. Article. (https://oneida-nsn.gov/dl-file.php?file=2016/03/Article-2-Blood-Quantum.pdf, accessed November 6, 2013)

Race and American Indian Tribal Nationhood

Year

This article bridges the gap between the perception and reality of American Indian tribal nation citizenship. The United States and federal Indian law encouraged, and in many instances mandated, Indian nations to adopt race-based tribal citizenship criteria. Even in the rare circumstance where an Indian nation chose for itself whether or not to adopt a race-based citizenship rule, the nation invariably did, with the belief and expectationthat Indian nations had no choice. In fact, Indian nations do have a choice.

Resource Type
Citation

Fletcher, Matthew L.M. "Race and American Indian Tribal Nationhood." Wyoming Law Review. Volume 11, Number 2. 2011. Paper. (https://scholarship.law.uwyo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1253&context=wlr, accessed June 7, 2023)

Understanding the history of tribal enrollment

Author
Year

It's difficult to talk about tribal enrollment without talking about Indian identity. The two issues have become snarled in the twentieth century as the United States government has inserted itself more and more into the internal affairs of Indian nations.

Ask who is Indian, and you will get divergent responses depending on who's answering. The U.S. Census Bureau, state governments, various federal government programs and agencies, and tribal governments all have different definitions. The criteria vary from a specific amount of blood quantum and descendency to residency and self-identification...

Resource Type
Citation

Livesay, Nora. "Understanding the history of tribal enrollment." The American Indian Policy Center Newsletter. The American Indian Policy Center. St. Paul, Minnesota. Fall 1996. Paper. (http://nayapdx.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/naya-101.pdf, accessed October 28, 2013)