Source: Federal Register, State tribal recognition for the states below specifically refers to states that have created a formal process for recognition. Please note, some states, even if they have not established a formal process for recognition acknowledge the historical and cultural contribution of tribes, however they are not captured in this list. Create Account.
Every few miles, we come upon a group of a dozen or so trailer homes. Broken-down cars and trucks are scattered outside like crushed soda cans. The 2 million Natives in the U. This deprivation seems to contribute not only to higher rates of crime but also to higher rates of suicide, alcoholism, gang membership, and sexual abuse. As of , the suicide rate for Native American men aged 15 to 34 was 1.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among Natives aged 10 to Alcohol-use disorders are more likely among American Indian youths than among any other ethnic group. Involvement in gang activity is more prevalent among Native Americans than it is among Latinos and African Americans. Native American women report being raped two-and-a-half times as often as the national average. The rate of child abuse among Native Americans is twice as high as the national average. And each of these problems is worse among the half of Natives who live on reservations.
Many say the federal government is not giving American Indians enough money to combat these problems. Others—often researchers in the academy —argue that American culture does not give Natives enough respect, continuing to traffic in stereotypes when it comes to sports teams and mocking those who claim to have Indian heritage.
The American Sociological Association, for instance, passed a resolution calling for sports teams at all levels of competition to cease using American Indian nicknames, logos, and mascots. The goal of this policy was originally to keep Indians contained to certain lands. Now, it has shifted to preserving these lands for indigenous peoples. But the effect is the same. This prevents American Indians from reaping numerous benefits.
Instead, Washington continues to send checks and micromanage these communities. Plenty of other federal agencies also have subsidy programs for Indians. In recent years, payments from Washington have increased and the size of the Bureau of Indian Affairs has ballooned. But according to most of the people I interviewed on reservations, the problems seem to have become worse.
Driving through Lame Deer, the center of the Northern Cheyenne reservation, some buildings were boarded up. Small said there used to be another market and a few other stores when he was growing up.
In modern tribal government, the chief executive and members of the tribal council or business committee are almost always elected. It is comprised of tribal members who are elected by eligible tribal voters.
In some tribes, the council is comprised of all eligible adult tribal members. Although some tribes require a referendum by their members to enact laws, a tribal council generally acts as any other legislative body in creating laws, authorizing expenditures, appropriating funds, and conducting oversight of activities carried out by the chief executive and tribal government employees.
An elected tribal council and chief executive, recognized as such by the Secretary of the Interior, have authority to speak and act for the tribe as a whole, and to represent it in negotiations with federal, state, and local governments. Furthermore, many tribes have established, or are building, their judicial branch — the tribal court system — to interpret tribal laws and administer justice. Generally, tribal courts have civil jurisdiction over Indians and non-Indians who either reside or do business on federal Indian reservations.
They also have criminal jurisdiction over violations of tribal laws committed by tribal members residing or doing business on the reservation. Under 25 C. Part , tribal courts are responsible for appointing guardians, determining competency, awarding child support from Individual Indian Money IIM accounts, determining paternity, sanctioning adoptions, marriages, and divorces, making presumptions of death, and adjudicating claims involving trust assets.
Congress has recognized the right of tribes to have a greater say over the development and implementation of federal programs and policies that directly impact on them and their tribal members. It did so by enacting two major pieces of legislation that together embody the important concepts of tribal self-determination and self-governance: The Indian Self-determination and Education Assistance Act of , as amended 25 U. Through these laws, Congress accorded tribal governments the authority to administer themselves the programs and services usually administered by the BIA for their tribal members.
It also upheld the principle of tribal consultation, whereby the federal government consults with tribes on federal actions, policies, rules or regulations that will directly affect them.
Of course, blood quantum the degree of American Indian or Alaska Native blood from a federally recognized tribe or village that a person possesses is not the only means by which a person is considered to be an American Indian or Alaska Native.
In fact, there is no single federal or tribal criterion or standard that establishes a person's identity as American Indian or Alaska Native. The rights, protections, and services provided by the United States to individual American Indians and Alaska Natives flow not from a person's identity as such in an ethnological sense, but because he or she is a member of a federally recognized tribe. That is, a tribe that has a government-to-government relationship and a special trust relationship with the United States.
These special trust and government-to-government relationships entail certain legally enforceable obligations and responsibilities on the part of the United States to persons who are enrolled members of such tribes. Eligibility requirements for federal services will differ from program to program. Likewise, the eligibility criteria for enrollment or membership in a tribe will differ from tribe to tribe. According to the U. Bureau of the Census, the estimated population of American Indians and Alaska Natives, including those of more than one race, as of July 1, , was 4.
They also refer specifically to persons eligible for benefits and services funded or directly provided by the BIA. Although the Secretary of the Interior is authorized by law to protect, where necessary, the interests of minors and adult persons deemed incompetent to handle their affairs, this protection does not confer a guardian-ward relationship.
As early as , U. American citizenship was also conveyed by statutes, naturalization proceedings, and by service in the Armed Forces with an honorable discharge in World War I. In , Congress extended American citizenship to all other American Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States. American Indians and Alaska Natives are citizens of the United States and of the individual states, counties, cities, and towns where they reside.
They can also become citizens of their tribes or villages as enrolled tribal members. American Indians and Alaska Natives have the right to vote just as all other U. They can vote in presidential, congressional, state and local, and tribal elections, if eligible. And, just as the federal government and state and local governments have the sovereign right to establish voter eligibility criteria, so do tribal governments.
American Indians and Alaska Natives have the same rights as other citizens to hold public office. Over the years, American Indian and Alaska Native men and women have held elected and appointed offices at all levels of federal, state, and local government.
Charles Curtis, a member of the Kaw Tribe of Kansas, served in both houses of Congress before holding the second highest elected office in the nation — that of Vice President of the United States under President Herbert Hoover. American Indians and Alaska Natives also serve in state legislatures, state judicial systems, county and city governments, and on local school boards.
The heavy price American Indians and Alaska Natives paid to retain certain rights of self-government was to relinquish much of their land and resources to the United States. Among those may be hunting and fishing rights and access to sacred sites.
On federal Indian reservations, however, only federal and tribal laws apply to members of the tribe, unless Congress provides otherwise. In federal law, the Assimilative Crimes Act makes any violation of state criminal law a federal offense on reservations. Most tribes now maintain tribal court systems and facilities to detain tribal members convicted of certain offenses within the boundaries of the reservation.
American Indians and Alaska Natives come from a multitude of different cultures with diverse languages, and for thousands of years used oral tradition to pass down familial and cultural information among generations of tribal members. Some tribes, even if widely scattered, belong to the same linguistic families. Common means of communicating between tribes allowed trade routes and political alliances to flourish.
As contact between Indians and non-Indians grew, so did the necessity of learning of new languages. Even into the 20th century, many American Indians and Alaska Natives were bi- or multilingual from learning to speak their own language and English, French, Russian, or Spanish, or even another tribal language.
It has been reported that at the end of the 15th century over American Indian and Alaska Native languages were spoken. Today, fewer than tribal languages are still viable, with some having been translated into written form.
English, however, has become the predominant language in the home, school, and workplace. Those tribes who can still do so are working to preserve their languages and create new speakers from among their tribal populations.
American Indians and Alaska Natives live and work anywhere in the United States and the world just as other citizens do. Many leave their reservations, communities or villages for the same reasons as do other Americans who move to urban centers: to seek education and employment. Over one-half of the total U.
American Indian and Alaska Native population now live away from their tribal lands. However, most return home to visit relatives; attend family gatherings and celebrations; participate in religious, cultural, or community activities; work for their tribal governments; operate businesses; vote in tribal elections or run for tribal office; retire; or to be buried.
During the Civil War, American Indians served on both sides of the conflict. Among the most well-known are Brigadier General Ely S.
Grant who recorded the terms of Confederate General Robert E. Their patriotism moved Congress to pass the Indian Citizenship Act of Alaska Natives also served in the Alaska Territorial Guard. In the Vietnam War, 41, Indian service personnel served. In , prior to Operation Desert Storm, some 24, Indian men and women were in the military.
Approximately 3, served in the Persian Gulf with three among those killed in action. There have been 13 assistant secretaries since the post was established in by a DOI secretarial order. The United States Senate confirmed Ms. Sweeney on June 28, She assumed her official duties on July 30, Her final day of service was January 20, Reporting directly to the Assistant Secretary through are the following officers, agencies and offices:.
The bureau implements federal laws and policies and administers programs established for American Indians and Alaska Natives under the trust responsibility and the government-to-government relationship. At the end of the eighteenth century, Congress transferred the responsibility for managing trade relations with the tribes to the Secretary of War by its act of August 20, 1 Stat.
It was later abolished by an act of May 6, 3 Stat. Secretary of War John C. Calhoun administratively established the BIA within the his department on March 11, Congress later legislatively established the bureau and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs post via the act of July 9, 4 Stat.
In the years that followed, the Bureau was known variously as the Indian office, the Indian bureau, the Indian department, and the Indian service. Parker, Seneca ; Robert L. Bennett, Oneida ; Louis R. Hallett, Red Lake Chippewa
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