Becoming Tribal Members in the South Mikaēla M. Adams A
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Carolina Digital Repository Who Belongs? Becoming Tribal Members in the South Mika ēla M. Adams A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2012 Approved by, Theda Perdue Michael D. Green Daniel M. Cobb Malinda Maynor Lowery Kathleen DuVal © 2012 Mikaëla M. Adams ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii Abstract MIKAELA M. ADAMS: Who Belongs? Becoming Tribal Members in the South (Under the direction of Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green) As a third race in the Jim Crow South, Indians struggled to maintain their political sovereignty and separate identity in the face of racial legislation and discrimination. To protect their status as tribal members and to defend their resources from outsiders, Indians developed membership criteria that reflected their older notions of kinship and culture, but also the new realities of a biracial world. This dissertation examines the responses of four southeastern Indian peoples to the problem of defining who legally belonged to Indian tribes. Although the Pamunkeys, Catawbas, Eastern Band of Cherokees, and Florida Seminoles dealt with similar questions regarding reservation residency, cultural affinity, intermarriage, “blood,” and race, each developed different requirements for tribal membership based on their unique histories and relationships with federal and state officials. The varying experiences of these southeastern tribes belie the notion of an essential “Indian,” and instead show that membership in a tribe is a historically-constructed and constantly-evolving process. iii To my parents, Karen Elizabeth Cummings Adams and David Erwin Adams iv Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the support and assistance of a number of people. It gives me pleasure to take a moment to recall and thank the scholars, teachers, friends, family, and many others who helped me along the way. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my academic advisers, Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green. Theda and Mike have been a constant source of support and encouragement since I began my studies at UNC. As advisers, they are dedicated, hardworking, and eager to assist. Not only did Theda help guide me to my dissertation topic, but she has also provided invaluable feedback on all of my writing. Mike has also read and commented on my work, offering important insight and advice. They are inspiring scholars, meticulous editors, and devoted mentors. I feel privileged to have worked with both of them. I would like to thank the other members of my dissertation committee—Daniel M. Cobb, Malinda Maynor Lowery, and Kathleen DuVal—for their advice and support. Dan’s passion for research and teaching stimulated my own interest in American Indian history when I first met him as an undergraduate. His scholarly work continues to inspire me. Malinda has been an amazing mentor and friend. Our frequent discussions over coffee helped me clarify many of the ideas that eventually made their way into the dissertation. Kathleen is an incredible scholar and impressive teacher. I am grateful for the helpful comments on the dissertation draft provided by each of my committee members. I would also like to thank Sandra Hoeflich and Danny Bell for attending my dissertation defense. v The archival research that sustains this dissertation would not have been possible without the generous support of the UNC History Department, the UNC Center for the Study of the American South, and the UNC Graduate School. Each organization offered me summer funding that allowed me to travel across the Southeast to conduct my research. I am also grateful to the UNC Graduate School for awarding me the Royster Society of Fellows’ Sequoyah Dissertation Fellowship. This non-service fellowship permitted me to devote my last year at UNC to writing. A number of archivists and librarians assisted me as I conducted my research. In particular, I would like to thank Brent Burgin at the University of South Carolina, Lancaster, for his cheerful encouragement and generous assistance. Brent introduced me to scholar Thomas Blumer, former chief of the Catawba Nation Donald Rodgers, Catawba elder Fred Sanders, and Catawba enrollment assistant Donna Curtis, each of whom provided me with important information on Catawba tribal membership. I would also like to thank Charles Lesser of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Maureen Hill and Arlene Royer of the National Archives and Records Administration in Atlanta, Charles B. Greifenstein of the American Philosophical Society, Leanda Gahegan of the National Anthropological Archives, Mary Frances Ronan of the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, and R. Lee Fleming, the director of the Office of Federal Acknowledgement, for their assistance as I sifted through archival materials and gathered the evidence that allowed me to tell the stories of the four tribes in my study. I have been lucky to become part of an extremely supportive community of American Indian studies scholars at UNC. In particular, I would like to thank Julie Reed, who has since become a history professor at the University of Tennessee, for her unwavering support and vi friendship. Her success as a scholar and her kindness as a person are inspirational. I am also grateful to Brooke Bauer, a good friend and fellow graduate student, who read and commented on portions of my chapter on the Catawba Nation. In addition, Courtney Lewis and Susannah Walker, of First Nations Graduate Circle, have been helpful and encouraging, especially during my final year of writing. I would also like to thank my network of friends outside of my field, including Debbie Drysdale, Mamta Raveendran, Pavan Muttil, Aubrie Langhorst Schroer, Michael Schroer, Maria Augusta Mitre, Fernando Chague, Cynthia Zuniga Reddix, Ken Reddix, Lu Wang, Guansong Wang, Ozlem Arat, Ozgun Erdogan, Wafa Hassouneh, Racha Moussa, and Maya Mikati. Their kindness and generosity have made my graduate school years some of the best of my life. My family has been wonderfully supportive of my graduate endeavors. In particular, I would like to thank my parents, Karen and David Adams, to whom this dissertation is dedicated, for their love and encouragement. From an early age, they fostered my interest in history and encouraged me to follow my passions. My grandmother, Norma Cummings, or, as I call her, Mormor, has also been a pillar of support. She has accompanied me on research trips, read early drafts of my work, and thoughtfully listened to my explanations of my research. My younger siblings—Yann, Christian, Briagenn, Tabitha, and Keir—have kept me grounded and reminded me of what truly matters in life. A final, and very special thanks, is owed to my best friend and partner, David Fragoso Gonzalez. David has watched this project develop from its earliest stages and by now knows the material almost as well as I do. He has accompanied me on research trips, listened to me vii talk about tribal membership criteria for hours, and kept me happy and well-fed throughout the process. Quite simply, David, I could not have finished the dissertation without you. viii Preface As a French-born American citizen who spent most of my childhood in Europe, questions of identity and national belonging have always intrigued me. Growing up in England, France, and Scotland, I was acutely aware of the difference of the legal status of my family from that of the people around us. Our frequent trips to American embassies in London and Paris drove home the point, as did the rare, but memorable, taunts of other children to “go back to my country.” When I finally returned to the United States at the age of thirteen, I was surprised to discover that I did not quite fit in there either. Years apart from the country of my citizenship made me feel like an outsider, despite what it said on my passport. These experiences raised questions. What does it mean to belong to a nation? What is the relationship between identity and citizenship? Questions of identity and belonging drew me to American Indian history. As an undergraduate sophomore at Miami University, I was excited to learn about peoples whose kin ties, cultural practices, and connections to place seemed to provide them with something so foreign to me—knowledge of who they were and where they belonged. Under the guidance of Dr. Daniel Cobb, I soon realized that this story was more complex. American Indians, like people across the globe, negotiate and renegotiate their identities in a dynamic world. I became particularly intrigued by cross-cultural encounters and the way that contact with “others” encouraged Indians, and the people they met, to reconsider their identities and ix reconceptualize who belonged to their communities. My interest in these interactions propelled me to graduate school. During my first semester as a graduate student at the University of North Carolina, I undertook a historiographical project on Maroon communities across the Americas. This paper rekindled my interest in cross-cultural encounters, especially as I learned about the early interactions between escaped African slaves and the Seminole Indians in Florida. My academic adviser, Dr. Theda Perdue, suggested that I pursue this interest but look at a later time. As she noted, a number of scholars had researched eighteenth and early nineteenth- century encounters between southeastern Indians and outsiders, but few had touched upon the ways those relationships changed in the South after the majority of Indians forcibly relocated west of the Mississippi. Armed with a time period, a region, and a theme, I set out to write my master’s thesis.