Part 3: Selecting the Colors Historical, Legal and Political Perspectives

2 To be an Indian, you must have a tribe

3 Diverse People, Cultures, Languages, Lifestyles, and Locations

4 Ethnological Concept of Tribe Shared language and culture

5 Federal Recognition  567 federally-recognized tribes Criteria:  Existence pre-date European discovery  Has continued to remain separate and distinct Process:  Act of Congress (treaties prior to 1871)  Petition Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)  Annually published in the Federal Register

6 Tribal Government  Like state or county governments Provides services Has sources of revenue Passes laws and enforces them  Tribal jurisdictional area: “Indian Country” State laws do not apply Tribal sovereignty

7 Tribes are unlike other local governments in the U.S.  Tribes define their membership: enrollment  Some tribes have traditional forms of government No separation of powers  No separation of “church” and state

8 Basic Tenants of Indian Law  Tribal sovereignty  Federal trust responsibility  Government-to-government relationship

9 Tribal Sovereignty  Tribes are governments that have authority with regard to their members  Tribes existed prior to the U.S. and made treaties with colonial powers, states, and the U.S.  Nations within a nation

10 Federal Trust Responsibility  U.S. Constitution Article I, Section 8, “Indian commerce clause” authorizes Congress to regulate commerce with “foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with Indian tribes” Article II, Section 2, grants the federal government the exclusive authority to make treaties  Trust responsibility is like being a guardian, looking out for the best interest of tribes

11 Government-to-Government Relationship  Tribes are treated as governments by the federal government.  Protocols  Tribal consultation

12 Federal Indian Policy Shifts 1700’s ’s: Westward Expansion and Indian removal  Indian Removal Act of 1830  Treaty making (ends 1871)  Indian wars

13 Federal Indian Policy Shifts continued… ’s: Assimilation and Allotment  General Allotment Act of 1887 (Dawes Act)  Boarding Schools  Re-naming

Arrival of Columbus 1790 Forced Inland 1830 Indian Country 1860 Immigration Stampede 1890 Vanquished 2090 Indian Country? = Reservation Lands

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16 More Policy Shifts  1930’s: Reorganization  1950’s: Termination and Relocation  1970’s: Self-determination  1980’s: Self-governance

17 Recent Trends in Indian policy  Negotiated rule-making (1994)  1994 Clinton Presidential Memorandum directs every federal agency to operate in a government- to-government relationship with tribes  1998 and 2000 executive orders on tribal consultation  More agencies contracting and compacting

18 Bureau of Indian Affairs  Agency in the Department of the Interior  Secretary of Interior has authority to make decisions about tribes including land status Land into trust -- increases size of reservations  Tribes want the Census Bureau to consult BIA maps regarding tribal boundaries

19 Key Points  Indians are the only group of people mentioned in the Constitution  Indians have a political relationship with the federal government that distinguishes from other ethnic groups  Have jurisdiction with regard to their people and their land

20 Key Points continued…  Treaties are legal agreements between sovereign nations not diminished by time  Tribes define their membership and there is no separation of “church” and state