Who counts as an American Indian? Which groups qualify as Indian
tribes? These questions have become increasingly complex in the
past several decades, and federal legislation and the rise of
tribal-owned casinos have raised the stakes in the ongoing debate.
In this revealing study, historian Mark Edwin Miller describes how
and why dozens of previously unrecognized tribal groups in the
southeastern states have sought, and sometimes won, recognition,
often to the dismay of the Five Tribes--the Cherokees, Chickasaws,
Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles.
Miller explains how politics, economics, and such slippery issues
as tribal and racial identity drive the conflicts between federally
recognized tribal entities like the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma,
and other groups such as the Southeastern Cherokee Confederacy that
also seek sovereignty. Battles over which groups can claim
authentic Indian identity are fought both within the Bureau of
Indian Affairs' Federal Acknowledgment Process and in Atlanta,
Montgomery, and other capitals where legislators grant state
recognition to Indian-identifying enclaves without consulting
federally recognized tribes with similar names.
Miller's analysis recognizes the arguments on all sides--both the
scholars and activists who see tribal affiliation as an individual
choice, and the tribal governments that view unrecognized tribes as
fraudulent. Groups such as the Lumbees, the Lower Muscogee Creeks,
and the Mowa Choctaws, inspired by the civil rights movement and
the War on Poverty, have evolved in surprising ways, as have
traditional tribal governments.
Describing the significance of casino gambling, the leader of one
unrecognized group said, "It's no longer a matter of red; it's a
matter of green." Either a positive or a negative development,
depending on who is telling the story, the casinos' economic impact
has clouded what were previously issues purely of law, ethics, and
justice. Drawing on both documents and personal interviews, Miller
unravels the tangled politics of Indian identity and sovereignty.
His lively, clearly argued book will be vital reading for tribal
leaders, policy makers, and scholars.
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