[lbo-talk] "American Indians"

[jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net]

Certainly there is a collective sense of Indianness regardless of tribe for all Native Americans. There is an 
unfortunate tendency for some tribes, but not all, to think of themselves as their tribe first and Native 
American second. It isn't something that is obvious to society at large however. Solidarity tends to be 
regional with Great Lakes tribes feeling they have a common interest and Southwestern tribes feeling the 
same but there is not much communication between the regions.

Right now there is a rather scary civil liberties lawsuit that brings this problem home for native Americans. I 
don't know how it's going to wash out but I'm afraid it will not work out for the best and will undermine tribal 
sovereignty in the end.

John Thornton

On 26 May 2006 at 15:56, Chris Doss wrote:


> Just out of curiosity (and my well-known interest in
> comparisons of US and Russian history, in this case
> with respect to the respective country's indigenous
> peoples), to what extent do today's American Indians
> think of themselves as forming a single group?
> Obviously there was no such concept in 1500  -- there
> were Apaches, Mohawks and so forth, not AIs. AI-ness
> as far as I know would have made no sense to them. To
> what extent is there such a collective identity today?
> Does being an AI trump being a Blackfoot or a
> Cherokee, say? Is there much solidarity between the
> different tribes? Sorry if this question shows my ignorance/naivete.
> 
> Nu, zayats, pogodi!