Native American identity in the United States

[1][2] As culture can vary widely between the 574 extant federally recognized tribes in the United States, the idea of a single unified "Native American" racial identity is a European construct that does not have an equivalent in tribal thought.

[1] While some groups and individuals self-identify as Native American, self-identification on its own does not make one eligible for membership among recognized tribes.

This term was considered to represent historical fact more accurately (i.e., "Native" cultures predated European colonization).

[citation needed] Some Indigenous activists and public figures, particularly those from the Plains nations, such as Russell Means (Oglala Lakota), have preferred "Indian" to the more recently adopted "Native American".

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 used three criteria: tribal membership, ancestral descent, and blood quantum (one half).

The Land Back movement, and other Native American civil rights organizations, prioritizes the protection and preservation of sacred sites, as well as the landbase that provides traditional foods, housing and cultural meaning to the people.

For example, some colonists imagined Indians as living in a state similar to their own ancestors, for example the Picts, Gauls, and Britons before "Julius Caesar with his Roman legions (or some other) had ... laid the ground to make us tame and civil".

These policies included but were not limited to the banning of traditional religious ceremonies; forcing traditional hunter-gatherer people to begin farming, often on land that was unsuitable and produced few or no crops; forced cutting of hair; coercing "conversion" to Christianity by withholding rations; coercing Indian parents to send their children to boarding schools where the use of Native American languages was met with violence and where many children died under suspicious circumstances; freedom of speech restrictions; and restriction on travel between reservations.

[23] Some authors have pointed to a connection between the social identity of Native Americans and their political status as members of a tribe.

[28] The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 attempts to take into account the limits of definitions based in federally recognized tribal membership.

A "self-identified Indian" is a person who may not satisfy the legal requirements which define a Native American according to the criteria set by the tribe or Nation in which they claim citizenship or heritage.

[32] Individuals may identify as Indian without outside verification in different settings, such as when filling out a census form or college application, or writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper.

[34] In 1990, only about 60 percent of the more than 1.8 million persons identifying themselves in the census as American Indian were actually enrolled in a federally recognized tribe.

[37][38] Many people who do not satisfy tribal citizenship or heritage requirements identify themselves as Native American due to their own ideas of biology or culture.

"[40][41] Louis Owens, who said his parents were both Native American although they were recorded as white, also expressed feelings of "not being a real Indian" because he was not enrolled in a tribe.

Listening to my mother's stories about Oklahoma, about brutally hard lives and dreams that cut across the fabric of every experience, I thought I was Indian.

"[42] Others whose careers involve Native American topics may self-identify for perceived advantages in academia, or to justify claims to land and territory.

[41] Patrick Wolfe suggests that the problem is more structural, stating that the ideology of settler colonialism actively needs to erase and then reproduce Indigenous identity in order to create and justify claims to land and territory.

[46] She also writes that by privileging an individual's claim over a tribe's right to define its own citizenship, self-identification can be a threat to tribal sovereignty.

[48] In 1918, Arapaho Cleaver Warden testified in hearings related to Indian religious ceremonies, "We only ask a fair and impartial trial by reasonable white people, not half-breeds who do not know a bit of their ancestors or kindred.

In the 1920s fraternal clubs based on "Indian" themes but open to, founded by, and sometimes solely consisting of, white people were common in New York City.

[49] A non-Native woman calling herself "Princess Chinquilla" (who claimed to have been separated from her Cheyenne parents at birth) and her associate Red Fox James (aka Skiuhushu) (Blackfoot) created a fraternal club which they claimed was "founded by white people to help the red race".

[52] This pan-Indian approach to identity has been cited to the teachings of 19th-century Shawnee leader Tecumseh as an effort to unify all Indians against white oppression.

[55] This concern is also shared by National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) Bioethics Core Director Sara Hull and National Institute of Health (NIH) bioethicist Hina Walajahi, who adds that direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic ancestry kits "fall short on accuracy because they only offer a probability toward a certain ancestry.

[62] Genetically, Native Americans are most closely related to East Asian people, while approximately 37% of their ancestry is derived from Ancient North Eurasians.

The ethnicity and identity data for the reference panels obtained from Durand, et al. was logged based on the participants' self-identification as Native American, European and African.

[67] Indigenous scholars have stated that DNA tests cannot reliably confirm Native American ancestry or tribal origin.

[70][56][57] The exploitation of Indigenous genetic material – such as the theft of human remains, land and artifacts – has led to widespread distrust and even boycotts of DNA testing companies by Native communities.

[68] Non-Native constructs of race and blood quantum are not factors in Cherokee Nation tribal citizenship eligibility (like the majority of Oklahoma tribes).

[85] The Lumbee were at one point known by the state as the Cherokee Indians of Robeson County and applied for federal benefits under that name in the early 20th century.