by Vine Deloria
Indians will become fiercely independent of federal sources of funds as they exercise their new-found ability to operate as an independent force. Once freed from the confining definitions of rights and privileges of the past, Indians will embark on a series of community development projects that are based upon new concepts of tribalism.
If Congress initially funds experimental efforts by tribal-urban combines, traditional programs which provide basic services to Indian people will disappear. The momentum of development will carry programs completely into the private sector of life. Thus there is everything to gain and little to lose for Congress to extend eligibility for funding to non-federal Indians in the next decade.
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Tribalism is the strongest force at work in the world today. And Indian people are the most tribal of all groups in America. They are also in the most advantageous position of any tribal people in the world. Using modern technical knowledge and having tremendous natural resources, Indian people can combine urban and rural life in a nationalistic continuum. An understanding of the forces and ideas brought forward by Indian people to solve particular problems during the next decade should prove to be useful information for solving similar problems elsewhere in the world.
The eventual movement among American Indians will be the “recolonization” of the unsettled areas of the nation by groups of Indian colonists. This process began several years ago when a group of Cherokee Indians, business and professional people from Los Angeles, moved from southern California back to Tahlequah, Oklahoma. They arrived at the old Cherokee capital and immediately blended into the existing Indian community virtually without a trace.
In Canada there has been a similar development. Several years ago a group of Ojibway moved off the reservations, purchased some land, and set up a corporation for community development. They began to get contracts for pulp wood from some of the papermills in the area. Now they own their own homes, a piece of land suitable for further development and expansion, and a great deal of machinery for their pulp wood business. Further experiments are planned by other groups in Canada.
In both cases the economic base for the new community was carefully analyzed and studied before the project was undertaken. Knowledge of modern economic mores and understanding of the strengths of tribal society enabled the people to project the type of recolonization that would be most likely to succeed. Both did.
The feasibility of such colonies is very much dependent on the rejection of the consumer mania which plagues society as a whole. The Indians had to determine whether continued treadmill consumption of luxuries was equal in value to a more leisurely and relaxed life. While certain benefits of urban or reservation living had to be surrendered, both experiments have shown that tribalism can be used in a redefinition of Indian life which has contemporary significance and strength.
Recolonization will call for a revival of Indian social and legal patterns. Rugged individualism will have to be reinterpreted to coincide with traditional Indian beliefs and practices. Some property must be held in common, personal property will remain the same. The corporate structure appears to give the best potential for development and use of small corporations as tools of development and recolonization will be highly favored.
Tribes already have corporation charters under the Indian Reorganization Act. Some urban centers have incorporated as nonprofit organizations. The next logical step is a corporation for development purposes in which both reservation and non-reservation people participate. These corporations would be formed to explore ideas of development outside either reservation boundaries or urban centers.
It is at this point that the traditional Indian customs will come to predominate among the operations of Indian people nationally. Tribalism looks at life as an undifferentiated whole. Distinctions are not made between social and psychological, educational and historical, political and legal. The tribe is an all-purpose entity which is expected to serve all areas of life. The new corporations will not simply be development corporations. Rather they will be expected to cover all areas of life from small business to scholarships.
Where ordinary white corporations serve to produce income from capital invested, corporations will not do so in the new Indian scheme. Rather they will serve to coordinate community life. Earnings will be used to provide services ordinarily received from various governmental agencies. As economic independence becomes greater, independence in other areas of life will follow. Indians can thereby achieve a prosperity not seen since the landing of the white man.
Knowledgeable anthropologists will probably tear their hair out reading this chapter. According to the scholars, community Indians should have vanished long ago. The thought that Indians might retribalize, recolonize, and recustomize will short many a fuse in the universities. But the urge is present. The concepts are being discussed, in places the idea is being tested; and when the urban Indians have achieved a certain amount of political awareness and made their presence felt in national Indian affairs, it will happen.
“Indianness” has been defined by whites for many years. Always they have been outside observers looking into Indian society from a self-made pedestal of preconceived ideas coupled with an innate superior attitude toward those different from themselves. Many times anthropologists and sociologists have acted as if we couldn’t do anything if they didn’t first understand it and approve of it. Those days are also gone.
“Indianness” never existed except in the mind of the beholder. Tribal social forms have always existed but they have been buried during past years by the legal entanglements of the federal government. Consequently Indians have come to believe that their problems were soluble by conformity to white culture (if there is one). Now that Indian people have realized that their problems are legal and not cultural, legal solutions will be found through political action, and Indian people will not only be free to revitalize old customs, but also to experiment with new social forms.
Tampering with the present legal status of Indian tribes will only bring change faster and tinge it with potential violence. Disenfranchised people, bitter from their termination experience, will provide the core of a violent urban Indian constituency if the present policy is continued. If the federal policy, however, contains provisions for self-determination of Indian groups wherever they happen to be, options for non-federal people will provide such a strong pull to the urban areas that people will willingly leave the reservations to join the new movements. This will speed development of self-sufficient projects and hurry the process of colonization.
There is, in fact, little need for more funds. The great need is for reorientation of existing expenditures to support projects of non-federal people. With much of the money now being spent in the Indian field going mainly to keep a dribble of young Indians on relocation, there is incredible monetary waste. There is no urgency in the program which can be felt by the Indian people themselves.
The more support that can be given to retribalizing of the people, the better chances are to avoid violence. Paradoxically, a greater sense of urgency in retribalization will tend to curb possible violence. Nationalism must be the ally of future policies. New policies must not be directed at breaking tribal ties because they will break upon the rock of the tribe.
As Indians become more and more aware of what they are doing the pressure on leadership will become less and less. In turn, the group will be stronger and more democratic and produce better leadership. The potential for development is unlimited but actual progress can be hampered by a number of factors. One is what the black community will be doing during the same time. At present the key words are “law and order.” All political candidates have used these words in their campaign speeches. Everyone understands that “law and order” are synonymous with repression of the black community. If the black community is severely repressed, it will accelerate movement in the Indian community. The natural tendency of Indians to withdraw will force them back upon themselves and act as a catalyst
in hastening the time for recolonization.
Like all redefinitions, many factors of varying importance may change present projection. Crucial to the change in Indian Affairs is the ability of tribal people to understand the implications of movement over a long period of time. Any movement which begins to exert a significant influence in America is subjected to publicity. Too much attention from the press can radically change conceptions and goals simply by making the process appear commonplace.
But hopefully, enough Indian people will take the time to reflect on their situation, on the things going on around them both in the cities and on the reservations, and will choose the proper points of leverage by which Indian renewal can be fully realized.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
VINE DELORIA, JR., famous as an Indian rights advocate and former Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians, is the author or editor of several popular and persuasive books, including American Indian Policy, published by the University of Oklahoma Press.
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INDEX
A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.
A
Abernathy, Ralph: 180, 254
Academic freedom, question of: 95
Act of March 3, 1819, provisions of: 45
Adolphus, Gustavus: 92
Alabama-Coushattas, termination and: 64
Alger, Horatio: 191
American Broadcasting Corporation, Custer series and: 24
American Civil Liberties Union: 262
American Indian Development, Inc.: 19
American Indian Historical Society: 18
American Indians United: formation of, 250; future of, 261
American Revolution: 33, 40; Indians and, 31
Anderson, Clinton: 70, 137
Anderson, Mad Bear: 114, 124
Anthropologists: 78–79, 81, 91, 94, 207, 212, 225; blacks and, 93; folk theories of, 83–84; “Indianness” and, 265; pan-Indianism and, 246; “real” Indians and, 82; resistance to, 95; workshops and, 82–87
Apaches: 17, 37, 51, 128, 154, 206, 243–45, 262; education for, 84; problems of, 21–22.
Appalachicolas: 245
Arapahos: 17, 22, 150, 203
Archetypes: see Stereotypes
Area offices of government agencies: discretionary funds for, 141; function of, 129–30; location of, 127–30
Area Redevelopment Administration: 26, 131
Arikara: 17, 22
Articles of Confederation: 44
Assiniboines: 22
Association on American Indian Affairs, future of: 261
B
Banyaca, Thomas: 119, 124; religion and, 113–14
Baptists: 108, 111, 112
Bennett, Robert: 135, 182; travels of, 138
Berger, Thomas: 16
BIA: See U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs
Biculturality, problems from: 80
Blackfeet: 11
Black Hawk, betrayal of: 201–202
Black Hills: 165
Black power: 84; Carmichael and, 180; Indians and, 182
Black River Falls, Wise.: 212
Blacks: 266; Civil Rights of, 168–71, 186; jokes about, 162–63; perceptions of, 171–74, 194–95; poverty and, 93; reservations for, 194; urban Indians and, 254, 256–57
Blood: See Indian blood
Board of Inquiry into Hunger and Malnutrition: 88
Book of the Hopi (Frank Waters): 114
Borland, Hal: 16
Boundaries, marking: 34
Boy Scouts, tribalism and: 231
Brown v. the Board of Education: 195
Buffalo, elimination of: 204
Buffalo Bill Cody: 209
“Buy Indian” Act: 259
C
Cabot, John: 30
Capital Conference on Poverty: 160
Capitalization, move toward: 184
Carmichael, Stokley: 180–82
Carter, Judge: 128
Cattle Indians, wealth of: 90
Cauhillas: 18
Chairmanship, tribal: concept of, 206–207; see also Leadership
Chasing Hawk, Alex: 27, 161
Cherokees: 3, 11, 18, 24, 35, 129, 229, 245, 262, 263; Christianity and, 115; Eastern Band, 247; treaties with, 32, 34–35
Cherry Creek, S. Dak.: 212
Cheyenne River Sioux: 27, 206; agency, 156
Cheyennes: 17, 22, 90, 149, 198, 203
Chickasaws: 115
Chippewas: 3, 17, 22, 95, 127, 158, 163, 164, 206, 249, 262; Medicine Lodge religion and, 113; NCAI and, 21; treaties with, 32, 39, 40, 44–45
Choctaws: 35, 50, 111, 115, 128, 129, 247; betrayal of, 42–43; Interior Department and, 43; treaties with, 42
Christianity: 11, 47, 104, 107, 111, 112, 176, 199; Civil Rights and, 75, 107–108; death and, 119–20; dilemma for, 115–17; Indian religion and, 102–103, 105, 112–13, 124; as industry, 124; influence of, 30, 175–76; jokes about, 152;53; revitalization of, 122–23; role of, 119–20; social norms of, 109; See also Churches; Church franchises
Church, Frank, hearings by: 66–67, 70
Churches, Indian Affairs and: 260–61
Church franchises, competing for: 106
Citizenship Act of 1924, Indians and: 76
Civilian Conservation Corps Camps: 88, 236
Civil Rights: 174, 178, 184, 189, 220, 261; blacks and, 186; Christianity and, 75, 107–108; direction of, 180; and self-respect, 179; humor and, 146, 155, 161–63; importance of, 168–69; Indians and, 7, 8, 83, 168–70, 179–80, 186–87; leadership of, 197–98; legislation for, 226; Robert F. Kennedy and, 192–93
Civil Rights Act of 1968: 238; assumptions of, 173
Civil Rights Bill of 1966: 241
Civil Rights Commission, Indians and: 169
Civil Service, tribal employment as: 141–42
Civil Service Committee, U.S. Senate: 69; hearings of, 56
Clubs, growth of: 231
Coalition of American Indian Citizens: 18
Coalition of Indian Citizens: 183; influence of, 20–21
Coeur d’Alenes: 19, 164, 206
Collier, John: BIA and, 144; IRA and, 55; work of, 48
Columbus, Christopher: 79, 101, 109, 175; jokes about, 147–48
Colvilles: 247; IRA and, 76; termination and, 72–76
Comanches: 17, 37, 203
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, role of: 132–33
Common law: 238–39
Community Development Corporation: 230; provisions of, 227
Community Relations Service: 169
Community Self-Determination Act, provisions of: 227
Congressional Record: 25
Congress of American Indians: 2
Congress of Racial Equality: See CORE
Constitution, U.S.: 7, 172, 178, 237, 246; amendments to, 168
Cook, Charles: 110
CORE: 220, 226–27, 230
Corporations: Indian, 228–30; revivalism and, 229–30; tribalism and, 227–30, 234–35
Costo, Rupert, work of: 18
Council on Indian Affairs: 160
Court of Claims: 65–66
Coushattas: 244
Crazy Horse: 89, 92, 193, 198, 216
Creeks: 115; confederacy, 203, 228
Crees: 22
<
br /> Crow Dog: 9
Crows: 22, 150; religion of, 103
Cultural independence: 180
Culture, Indian definition of: 185–86; white, 188–89
Curtis, Thomas: 226
Cushman, Dan: 16
Custer, George Armstrong: 127, 198, 203; jokes about, 147–50, 152, 163; television series about, 24–25
Custer bumper sticker: 148
D
Da, Popovi: 166
Dam-building projects on Indian lands: 51
Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR): 65
Dawes Allotment Act: See General Allotment Act
Death: Christianity and, 119–20; Indian religion and, 119–21
Deganawidah: 203
Delawares: 35; treaty with, 32, 33, 36, 39–42, 44–45
Democracy, and Indians: 12
Democratic Party, philosophy of: 191–92
Dependency, concept of: 32–33
Descartes, René: 59
De Smet, Father Pierre Jean: 110
Diamond, Tom: 243–44
Digger Indians: 96
Domesday survey of 1086: 60, 61
Ducheneaux, Frank: 206
Dull, Knife: 89–90, 198
E
Earhart, Amelia: 128
Economic Darwinism: 104, 176, 180
Economic Development Act: 236
Economic Development Administration: 131, 142; Indians and, 138
Economic Opportunity Act: 236
Education: 21–22, 134, 170–71; funds for, 71, 137–38; problems in, 84, 91, 239; reform of, 240–41
Eichmann, Adolph: 24, 97
Eighty-third Congress, Indian Affairs and: 61–62
Eisenhower, Dwight D.: 191, 255
Emmons, Glenn: 158–59
Employment Act of 1946: 53
English common law and Indian common law: 238–39