DOCSLIB.ORG

'WE WORRY ABOUT SURVIVAL': AMERICAN INDIAN WOMEN, SOVEREINGTY, and the RIGHT to BEAR and RAISE CHILDREN in the 1970S Meg

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
'WE WORRY ABOUT SURVIVAL': AMERICAN INDIAN WOMEN, SOVEREINGTY, and the RIGHT to BEAR and RAISE CHILDREN in the 1970S Meg ‘WE WORRY ABOUT SURVIVAL’: AMERICAN INDIAN WOMEN, SOVEREINGTY, AND THE RIGHT TO BEAR AND RAISE CHILDREN IN THE 1970s Meg Devlin O’Sullivan 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 2007 Approved by: Theda Perdue Michael Green Jacquelyn Hall Kathleen DuVal Valerie Lambert ©2007 Meg Devlin O’Sullivan ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Meg Devlin O’Sullivan: ‘We Worry About Survival’: American Indian Women, Sovereignty, and the Right to Bear and Raise Children in the 1970s (Under the direction of Theda Perdue and Michael Green) This dissertation examines the political activism of American Indian women during the 1970s. Confronted with racism from the dominant society and sexism from both within and outside of their communities, these women constructed a feminist agenda that addressed their concerns as Indians and women. In particular, they worked to end coerced sterilization and the rampant removal of Indian children from their communities and homes. Building on new scholarship that has argued the struggle for reproductive freedom included the right to bear children as well as prevent births, ‘We Worry About Survival’ looks at the crucial role Indian women played in arresting sterilization abuse and defining American women’s struggle for reproductive justice. At the same time that Indian women’s activism to end coerced sterilization informed the goals of the feminist movement, their activism to reform adoption and foster care processes shaped the meaning of tribal sovereignty in the late twentieth century. The project describes not only the tangible achievements of these women in effecting federal regulations and legislation, but also their influence on mainstream American feminist ideology and Indian Country’s interpretation of women’s and children’s rights as sovereign rights. iii DEDICATION To Sam, whose birth helped me understand this project in immeasurable ways. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation was a collaborative effort. I thank my advisors Theda Perdue and Michael Green, for helping me conceive, construct, and complete the project. I also thank them for their patience. Jeanne Boydston encouraged me to pursue a Ph.D. in History while I was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and she gently reminded me at a crucial point in my graduate career that whatever professional path I chose would be the right one. I appreciate how Jacquelyn Hall, Kathleen DuVal, and Valerie Lambert gave me and this project their time and guidance. Funding from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the American Philosophical Society assisted me throughout the endeavor, for which I am very grateful. I thank the archivists of the Sophia Smith Collection in Northampton, Massachusetts, the Rockefeller Archive Center in Tarrytown, New York, The Seely G. Mudd Manuscript Library in Princeton, New Jersey, and the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington D.C for their time. The inter-library loan staff at Emory and Henry College, Emory, Virginia, in particular Patty Greany and Jane Caldwell, truly made the completion of the project possible. I thank the 2004-2006 staff of the Writing Center at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, for their insights, wit, and companionship. Thanks to Christina Snyder for her role as friend and colleague, always in that order. My family, Ellen Devlin, Charles Devlin, Michael Devlin, Sharon Scully, Wayne O’Sullivan, and Mary Jo O’Sullivan, were kind enough to read drafts of this project at the eleventh hour. Their support of me is endless. Carolyn Levy, Corrine Chamberlain, Tara v Kehoe and countless friends in North Carolina, Virginia, and New York have listened patiently and lovingly as I walked this path. I am grateful to them all. Finally, I thank Michael O’Sullivan. He is husband, historian, friend, formatter, and now, father, extraordinaire. And thanks to you too, Samuel Myles O’Sullivan, just for being. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES...........................................................................................................viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.............................................................................................ix Chapter INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................1 I. RED POWER AND WHITE FEMINISM: THE EMERGENCE OF INDIAN WOMEN’S ACTIVISM.…......................10 II. TWENTIETH-CENTURY EUGENICS, POPULATION CONTROL, AND INDIAN WOMEN….............................................................................40 III. INDIAN WOMEN’S FIGHT AGAINST COERCED STERILIZATION ....72 IV. IN THE “BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILD”: NON-NATIVE INTERVENTION IN INDIAN CHILDREN’S WELFARE........................ 105 V. THE CRISIS OF INDIAN CHILD WELFARE AND THE SOLUTION OF SOVEREIGNTY........................................................142 CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................177 EPILOGUE................................................................................................................181 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................................186 vii LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. American Indian Policy Review Commission Statistics on Indian Child Foster Care and Adoption................................................................................................................... 176 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AAIA Association on American Indian Affairs ACLU American Civil Liberties Union AIM American Indian Movement AIO Americans for Indian Opportunity AIPRC American Indian Policy Review Commission ARENA Adoption Resource Exchange of North America BIA Bureau of Indian Affairs CARASA Committee for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse CESA Committee to End Sterilization Abuse DRUMS Determination of Rights and Unity of Menominee Shareholders GAO Government Accounting Office HEW (Department of) Health, Education, and Welfare IAP Indian Adoption Project ICWA Indian Child Welfare Act IHS Indian Health Service IWY International Women’s Year LDS Latter-Day Saints NAC Native American Committee NAIWA North American Indian Women’s Association NCAI National Congress of American Indians NWHN National Women’s Health Network NOW National Organization for Women ix RCAR Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights WARN Women of All Red Nations WOCPP Women of Color Partnership Project x INTRODUCTION During the 1960s and 1970s, American Indian women participated in the Red Power movement and overwhelmingly dismissed the women’s liberation movement as white women’s struggle. These activists found, however, that issues of sexism as well as political sovereignty affected them. Although white women’s feminism did not appeal to many of these activists, their experiences as Indian women made clear to them that their fight for tribal rights manifested itself in distinctly gendered ways. Indian women’s activism combined elements of both the Red Power and women’s liberation movements, and it centered on two issues that most concerned the Indian women activists: the coerced sterilization of Indian women and the placement of Indian children in non-Indian foster and adoptive homes. This dissertation describes the specific histories of coerced sterilization and the removal of Indian children from their families, details Indian women’s activism in the 1970s to end both practices, and makes a case for the role Indian women played in defining the meaning of reproductive justice and tribal sovereignty. Few published works have looked specifically at Indian women’s activism during the 1970s. Scholars have described the history of Red Power and women’s place within it, but fail to examine what political issues beyond the larger goals of tribal sovereignty and political autonomy were germane to Indian women. For example, Troy Johnson and Joanne Nagel have written extensively on the subject and documented the major efforts of the Red Power movement, such as the seizure of Alcatraz Island and the Longest Walk. 1 Paul Chat Smith and Robert Allen Warrior used a similar framework in Like a Hurricane. 2 Autobiographical accounts by Red Power activists such as those by Russell Means, Dennis Banks, and Stanley David Lyman, also have looked at the goals and achievements of the movement as a whole and focused on individual men’s experiences.3 As these works acknowledged, Indian women participated actively in the struggle for sovereignty, but their activism during the 1970s extended beyond the seemingly male- dominated Red Power movement. Mary Crow Dog’s memoir Lakota Woman , Devon Mihesuah’s article on Mikmaq activist Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash, and Elizabeth Castle’s dissertation on African American and American Indian women activists are among the only investigations of Indian women’s political work during the era of Red Power. 4 These activist women worked on issues specific to them as Indians and women within the Red Power movement and as a part of the larger women’s movement for reproductive freedom. For Indian women as well as other feminists of color, reproductive justice included the right to bear and keep children rather than merely the goal of 1 Troy Johnson, Joanne Nagel, Duane Champagne, eds., American Indian Activism: Alcatraz to the Longest Walk
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Multiple Injustices Critical Issues in Indigenous Studies
    MULTIPLE INJUSTICES CRITICAL ISSUES IN Indigenous STUDIES Jeffrey P. Shepherd and Myla Vicenti Carpio series editors advisory board Hokulani Aikau Jennifer Nez Denetdale Eva Marie Garroutte John Maynard Alejandra Navarro-Smith Gladys Tzul Keith Camacho Margaret Elizabeth Kovach Vicente Diaz R. AÍDA HERNÁNDEZ CASTILLO MULTIPLE INJUSTICES Indigenous Women, Law, and Political Struggle in Latin America TUCSON The University of Arizona Press www.uapress.arizona.edu © 2016 The Arizona Board of Regents All rights reserved. Published 2016 Printed in the United States of America 21 20 19 18 17 16 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN-13: 978-0-8165-3249-0 (cloth) Cover design by Leigh McDonald Cover illustration produced in Pilar Hinojosa’s Sumi-e workshop in the Feminine Prison of Atlacholoaya, Morelos. Publication of this book is made possible in part by the proceeds of a permanent endowment created with the assistance of a Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data [to come] This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). CONTENTS List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 3 1 Activist Research on Justice and Indigenous Women’s Rights 33 2 Multiple Dialogues and Struggles for Justice: Political Genealogies of Indigenous Women in Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia 67 3 Indigenous Justices: New Spaces of Struggle for Women 123 4 From Victims to Human Rights Defenders: International Litigation and the Struggle for Justice of Indigenous Women 163 5 From the Multicultural State to the Penal State: Incarcerated Indigenous Women and the Criminalization of Poverty 190 Final Thoughts 229 Appendix 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Protest Law and the Tradition of Chilling Indigenous Free Speech
    American University Washington College of Law Digital Commons @ American University Washington College of Law Articles in Law Reviews & Journals Student Scholarship 2019 "Enough's Enough": Protest Law and the Tradition of Chilling Indigenous Free Speech Alix H. Bruce Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/stusch_lawrev Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, First Amendment Commons, and the Indian and Aboriginal Law Commons “ENOUGH’S ENOUGH”: PROTEST LAW AND THE TRADITION OF CHILLING INDIGENOUS FREE SPEECH Alix Bruce* I. INTRODUCTION……………………………………….55 II. AN OVERVIEW OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION IN THE UNITED STATES…………………………………………….....58 A. Freedom of Speech……………………………….58 B. Freedom of Association……………………….…63 III. CIVIL RIGHTS FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES………………………………………………66 A. “Kill the Indian, Save the Man”: Indigenous Civil Rights Pre-1924………………………………….66 B. 8 U.S.C. § 1401(a)(2) and the Rise of Red Power…………………………………………….70 C. The First Amendment as Applied to the Indigenous Peoples of the United States……………………......................................73 IV. CURRENT TRENDS…………………………………….74 A. Indigenizing Environmental Justice……………...74 B. Mni Wiconi and Oceti Sakowin: The Timeline of #NoDAPL………………………………………...77 C. Current Laws…………………………………….83 1. Oklahoma………………………………...83 2. North and South Dakota………………….85 3. Louisiana…………………………………88 4. Texas……………………………………..89 5. Federal……………………………………91 V. THE CHILLING OF INDIGENOUS FREE SPEECH BY CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
    [Show full text]
  • Indigenous Maya Knowledge and the Possibility of Decolonizing Education in Guatemala
    Indigenous Maya Knowledge and the Possibility of Decolonizing Education in Guatemala by Vivian Michelle Jiménez Estrada A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto © Copyright by Vivian Michelle Jiménez Estrada 2012 Indigenous Maya Knowledge and the Possibility of Decolonizing Education in Guatemala Vivian Michelle Jiménez Estrada Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education University of Toronto 2012 Abstract Maya peoples in Guatemala continue to practice their Indigenous knowledge in spite of the violence experienced since the Spanish invasion in 1524. From 1991 until 1996, the state and civil society signed a series of Peace Accords that promised to better meet the needs of the Maya, Xinka, Garífuna and non-Indigenous groups living there. In this context, how does the current educational system meet the varied needs of these groups? My research investigates the philosophy and praxis of Maya Indigenous knowledge (MIK) in broadly defined educational contexts through the stories of 17 diverse Maya professional women and men involved in educational reform that currently live and work in Guatemala City. How do they reclaim and apply their ancestral knowledge daily? What possible applications of MIK can transform society? The findings reveal that MIK promotes social change and healing within and outside institutionalized educational spaces and argues that academia needs to make room for Indigenous theorizing mainly in areas of education, gender, knowledge production, and nation building. I analyze these areas from anticolonial and critical Indigenous standpoints from which gender and Indigenous identities weave through the text.
    [Show full text]
  • Feminist International Relations and “Epistemic Blank Spots”: Entrenching Hegemony?
    Wright State University CORE Scholar Browse all Theses and Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 2016 Feminist International Relations and “Epistemic Blank Spots”: Entrenching Hegemony? Jasmine Underwood Wright State University Follow this and additional works at: https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/etd_all Part of the International Relations Commons Repository Citation Underwood, Jasmine, "Feminist International Relations and “Epistemic Blank Spots”: Entrenching Hegemony?" (2016). Browse all Theses and Dissertations. 1679. https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/etd_all/1679 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at CORE Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Browse all Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of CORE Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FEMINIST INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND “EPISTEMIC BLANK SPOTS”: ENTRENCHING HEGEMONY? A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts By JASMINE UNDERWOOD B.A. International Studies, The Ohio State University, 2009 2016 Wright State University WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL November 8, 2016 I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY Jasmine Underwood ENTITLED Feminist International Relations and “Epistemic Blank Spots”: Entrenching Hegemony? BE ACCEPTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Master of Arts. ______________________ December A. Green, Ph.D. Co-Director ______________________ Hope E. Jennings, Ph.D. Co-Director ______________________ Laura M. Luehrmann, Ph.D. Director, Master of Arts Program in International and Comparative Politics Committee on Final Examination: Approved by Thesis Committee: ________________________ December A. Green, Ph.D. Department of Political Science ________________________ Hope E.
    [Show full text]
  • Outline of United States Federal Indian Law and Policy
    Outline of United States federal Indian law and policy The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to United States federal Indian law and policy: Federal Indian policy – establishes the relationship between the United States Government and the Indian Tribes within its borders. The Constitution gives the federal government primary responsibility for dealing with tribes. Law and U.S. public policy related to Native Americans have evolved continuously since the founding of the United States. David R. Wrone argues that the failure of the treaty system was because of the inability of an individualistic, democratic society to recognize group rights or the value of an organic, corporatist culture represented by the tribes.[1] U.S. Supreme Court cases List of United States Supreme Court cases involving Indian tribes Citizenship Adoption Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield, 490 U.S. 30 (1989) Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, 530 U.S. _ (2013) Tribal Ex parte Joins, 191 U.S. 93 (1903) Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez, 436 U.S. 49 (1978) Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield, 490 U.S. 30 (1989) South Dakota v. Bourland, 508 U.S. 679 (1993) Civil rights Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, 435 U.S. 191 (1978) United States v. Wheeler, 435 U.S. 313 (1978) Congressional authority Ex parte Joins, 191 U.S. 93 (1903) White Mountain Apache Tribe v. Bracker, 448 U.S. 136 (1980) California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, 480 U.S. 202 (1987) South Dakota v. Bourland, 508 U.S. 679 (1993) United States v.
    [Show full text]
  • Feminist Criticism: the Importance of Sharing the Native Female Journey
    Feminist Criticism: The Importance Of Sharing The Native Female Journey A Senior Project Presented to The Faculty of the Communication Studies Department California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Bachelor of Arts By Michelle Newfield Dr. Richard Besel Senior Project Advisor Signature Date T. C. Winebrenner Department Chair Signature Date © 2010 Michelle Newfield Table of Contents Feminist Criticism: The Importance of Sharing the Native Female Journey..................... 1 Understanding Sister Nations from a Feminist Perspective............................................... 3 The Female Native American Role and the Importance of Storytelling............................ 5 Feminist Criticism Used to Decode Female Native Rhetoric............................................ 7 Native American Authors Bring the Struggle “Back Home” to Life................................. 8 The Use of Tragic Native Humor to Address Cultural Tensions...................................... 12 Sister Nations Reveals Stereotypes and Distortion of the Female Image......................... 16 Stereotypes and Prejudice................................................................................................. 18 Conclusion........................................................................................................................ 21 Works Cited...................................................................................................................... 25 Newfield 1 Feminist
    [Show full text]
  • Mainstream Feminism
    Feminist movements and ideologies This collection of feminist buttons from a women's museum shows some messages from feminist movements. A variety of movements of feminist ideology have developed over the years. They vary in goals, strategies, and affiliations. They often overlap, and some feminists identify themselves with several branches of feminist thought. Groupings Judith Lorber distinguishes between three broad kinds of feminist discourses: gender reform feminisms, gender resistant feminisms, and gender revolution feminisms. In her typology, gender reform feminisms are rooted in the political philosophy of liberalism with its emphasis on individual rights. Gender resistant feminisms focus on specific behaviors and group dynamics through which women are kept in a subordinate position, even in subcultures which claim to support gender equality. Gender revolution feminisms seek to disrupt the social order through deconstructing its concepts and categories and analyzing the cultural reproduction of inequalities.[1] Movements and ideologies Mainstream feminism … "Mainstream feminism" as a general term identifies feminist ideologies and movements which do not fall into either the socialist or radical feminist camps. The mainstream feminist movement traditionally focused on political and legal reform, and has its roots in first- wave feminism and in the historical liberal feminism of the 19th and early- 20th centuries. In 2017, Angela Davis referred to mainstream feminism as "bourgeois feminism".[2] The term is today often used by essayists[3] and cultural analysts[4] in reference to a movement made palatable to a general audience by celebrity supporters like Taylor Swift.[5] Mainstream feminism is often derisively referred to as "white feminism,"[6] a term implying that mainstream feminists don't fight for intersectionality with race, class, and sexuality.
    [Show full text]
  • July 6, 2020 VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL Roger Goodell, Commissioner
    July 6, 2020 VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL Roger Goodell, Commissioner National FootBall League 280 Park Avenue New York, NY 10017 [email protected] Dear Mr. Goodell, The undersigned are Native American leaders and organizations that have worked tirelessly and substantively for over half a century to change the racist name of the Washington team. We appreciate the statements made in recent days regarding the league and the team’s intention to revisit the name, But we are deeply concerned that the process or decision to rename is Being made in aBsence of any discussion with the concerned leadership. Specifically, we, the undersigned, request that the NFL immediately: 1. Require the Washington NFL team (Owner- Dan Snyder) to immediately change the name R*dsk*ns, a dictionary defined racial slur for Native Peoples. 2. Require the Washington team to immediately cease the use of racialized Native American Branding By eliminating any and all imagery of or evocative of Native American culture, traditions, and spirituality from their team franchise including the logo. This includes the use of Native terms, feathers, arrows, or monikers that assume the presence of Native American culture, as well as any characterization of any physical attributes. 3. Cease the use of the 2016 Washington Post Poll and the 2004 National AnnenBerg Election Survey which have Been repeatedly used By the franchise and supporters to rationalize the use of the racist r-word name. These surveys were not academically vetted and were called unethical and inaccurate By the Native American Journalist Association as well as deemed damaging By other prominent organizations that represent Native Peoples.
    [Show full text]
  • Exploring Indigenous Feminist Relational Sovereignty: Feminist Conversations, Non-Colonizing Solidarities, Inclusive Nations
    Exploring Indigenous Feminist Relational Sovereignty: Feminist Conversations, Non-colonizing Solidarities, Inclusive Nations Carol Lynne D'Arcangelis is a PhD student Introduction in Adult Education and Community Thus, I came to understand pedagogies in multiple Development at OISE/UT. Her research ways: as something given, as in handed, revealed; as draws from critical pedagogy, Indigenous, in breaking through, transgressing, disrupting, inverting post-colonial, critical race and feminist inherited concepts and practices, those psychic, literatures to consider the theoretical and analytic and organizational methodologies we deploy to practical possibilities for fostering know what we believe we know so as to make different non-colonizing solidarities between conversations and solidarities possible. Indigenous women and allies. Carol Lynne (Alexander 2005, 7) comes to her studies from an extended period of social justice activism and human rights Following Jacqui Alexander, I advocacy in Central America. endeavour to stimulate feminist conversations and solidarities by exploring points of Abstract engagement between Indigenous feminist This article juxtaposes Indigenous feminist notions of relational sovereignty and relevant perspectives on sovereignty with related ideas aspects of non-Indigenous feminist thought. of feminist scholars Jacqui Alexander and My reasons are two-fold - a blending of theory Nandita Sharma in order to further feminist and practice: to simultaneously further theorizations of sovereignty and nationhood feminist theorizations of sovereignty and that reject neo-liberalism, and to forge a nationhood that reject neoliberalism and to "non-colonizing feminist solidarity" with forge a "non-colonizing feminist solidarity" Indigenous peoples, particularly Indigenous (Mohanty 2003) with Indigenous peoples, women, in their struggles for particularly Indigenous women, in their self-determination.
    [Show full text]
  • Television News Philosophy and the Life Cycle of a Social Movement
    UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations 1-1-1995 Win the lead! Television news philosophy and the life cycle of a social movement Marie Curkan-Flanagan University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds Repository Citation Curkan-Flanagan, Marie, "Win the lead! Television news philosophy and the life cycle of a social movement" (1995). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 577. http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/4x97-ck3u This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction.
    [Show full text]
  • Keeping the Indian Tribal Community Together: Nation Building and Cultural Sovereignty in the Indian Casino Era
    The Japanese Journal of American Studies, No. 31 (2020) Copyright © 2020 Kumiko Noguchi. All rights reserved. This work may be used, with this notice included, for noncommercial purposes. No copies of this work may be distributed, electronically or otherwise, in whole or in part, without permission from the author. Keeping the Indian Tribal Community Together: Nation Building and Cultural Sovereignty in the Indian Casino Era Kumiko NOGUCHI* The gut question has to do with the meaning of the tribe. Should it continue to be a quasi-political entity? [Should] it become primarily an economic structure? Or should it become, once again, a religious community? The future, perhaps the immediate future, will tell. — Vine Deloria Jr., For This Land: Writing on Religion in America INTRODUCTION Vine Deloria Jr., the well-known Native American intellectual proposing this “gut question” in 1999, expected that a new discussion on self-rule of the tribes among the Native American communities would come soon. His expectation came to pass when the discussion among Native American intellectuals and leaders about tribal communities was developed as a social theory after the advent of the “Indian casino era,” beginning in the late 1980s.1 The idea of Native American community development originally emerged out of the Red Power movement starting in the 1960s (weakening in the 1970s) in which Native American activists resisted federal control, which historically had ignored and destroyed Native American communities, resulting in broken families, alcoholism, and poverty. The term “Red *Assoc iate Professor, Meiji Gakuin University 133 134 KUMIKO NOGUCHI Power,” is attributed to Vine Deloria Jr.2 Red Power increased the sense of Indian pride and ushered in a new age for Native Americans to positively self-represent based on “Indian” identity.
    [Show full text]
  • Date ___Red Power Prevails Student Worksheet
    Name ______________________________ Date __________ Red Power Prevails Student Worksheet Warm Up (THINK) Take (1) min to reflect on the information you’ve learned in school about Native American history. Jot Down some words or phrases that come to mind. (PAIR) 1.Discuss your prior knowledge with a partner. Put a check by any information, above, that your partner also wrote down. 2.With the same partner reflect on any movements for Native American rights that either of you may have learned about or heard of. Jot Down your notes below. (3mins) (SHARE) Review your notes above and circle the one you both think is most important or interesting. One of you will share this with the whole group. Activity #1 - See Think Wonder Examine the images carefully, making educated observations. Complete the see, think, wonder sentence stems. Then use the background information to explore the history and purpose of the American Indian Movement. IMAGE 1 I see (only describe what you see) ● ● I see _____________ , which makes me think … So now I wonder….. IMAGE 2 I see (only describe what you see) ● ● I see _____________ , which makes me think … So now I wonder….. Founded in July 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the American Indian Movement (AIM) is an American Indian advocacy group organized to address issues related to sovereignty, leadership, and treaties. During the 1950s, increasing numbers of American Indians had been forced to move away from reservations and tribal culture because of federal Indian termination policies intended to assimilate them into mainstream American culture. Founders of AIM included Mary Jane Wilson, Dennis Banks, Vernon Bellecourt, Clyde Bellecourt, and George Mitchell, while other activists like Russell Means worked with the organization prominently in the 1970s.
    [Show full text]