Native American recognition in the United States
[1] They may form their own government, enforce laws (both civil and criminal), tax, license and regulate activities, zone, and exclude people from tribal territories.
State recognition does not dictate whether or not they are recognized as Native American tribes by continually existing tribal nations.
As of March 24, 2023[update], there are 574 tribes legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United States,[4][5] 228 of which are located in Alaska.
Cherokee Nation spokesman Mike Miller suggests that people with an interest in Indian culture can form heritage groups.
[11] Tribes were originally recognized as legal parties through treaties, executive orders, or presidential proclamations.
The 1934 Indian Reorganization Act played a major role in the development of the concept of federal recognition.
[12] During the 1960s and early 1970s, dozens of groups that lacked federal acknowledgment came forward to demand their rights as native peoples.
In the east, groups like the Mashpee Wampanoag filed suit for lands lost in preceding generations.
Currently known as the Office of Federal Acknowledgment, this entity is the main body charged with deciding which groups are eligible to secure status.
The government terminated its relationship with numerous tribes under this policy, including the Menominees of Wisconsin, and the Klamath of Oregon.
For example, the Taylorsville Rancheria was established and participated in the IRA, but during the termination era the tribe's land was sold to Plumas county to be used for a park and roping club.
The Taylorsville Rancheria has been in limbo since that time and continues to struggle for their restored status as a recognized tribe.
At times a person's membership in a federally recognized tribe was not sufficient for classification as Indian in the eyes of the courts.
The Department of Justice required that a defendant be an enrolled member of a tribe to be covered by the Major Crimes Act.
This Act defined a person as Indian based on three criteria, tribal membership, ancestral descent, or blood quantum.
In 1939, for example, the BIA sent Harvard anthropologist Carl Selzer to Robeson County, North Carolina to review the claims of the Lumbee, who were of mixed-race descent.
The absurd results of his study listed children as Indian while omitting their parents, and placing brothers and sisters on opposite sides of the half-blood line.
[27][28] 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.
[27][28][29] Native American concerns over equal protection and tribal sovereignty led the federal government to reduce its role as arbiter of race-based eligibility standards.
"[31] The government has shifted to the "political" definitions, by which legislation has defined Indians based on membership in federally recognized tribes.
Some criticize the federal government's interference even in this limited way, as still setting certain conditions on the nature of membership criteria.
This was to halt the economic loss to Indians due to questionable and fraudulent claims of this sort, which was estimated between $400 and $800 million a year.
