I outlined the problem of racially hybrid native groups in the eastern
United States in an earlier posting to this list. For many of them, the
traditional native culture and language have been lost. It is essential for
these groups to borrow stereotypical symbols of "Indian" identity (Plains-
style dance costumes, fancy dancing, even tepees) to validate their claims to
an Indian social category if their white and black neighbors are not to
automatically class them as mulattoes and, therefore, indistinguishable from
Blacks as far as their social identity is concerned.
For those groups which retain varying degrees of traditional culture,
the symbols of their ethnic identity may be couched in social, religious/
ceremonial, or economic institutions. When they relate to the exploitation
of specific natural resources (e.g., caribou herds for the Gwitch'in, or
spearfishing of walleye for the Chippewa), loss of access to these resources
and/or their ecolo gical destruction is quite definitely a threat to the
maintenance of ethnic and community identity. So is the forced reduction
of cattle herds for the Western Shoshone. I feel that such a threat is a
legitimate concern for NativeNet; it is not enough to imply that clear-cutting
of forests is a threat to the maintenance of a native culture (or, for that
matter, that mining in native territory is).
I would submit that, even if Native American groups were to develop a
greater interest in electronic communication, access to computers, and
training in networking, this would be of little help in dealing with the BIA.
This agency has been little concerned, except during the administration of
John Collier, with the maintenance of native communities or native identities.
Its policies have generally been aimed at the assimilation of Indians into
mainstream society (as it appears those of the Ministry of Indian Affairs in
Canada are), or to developing group economies to a condition of "self-
sufficiency" where Congressional appropriations for the relief of their
members are no longer necessary. Why else would there be such a demand for
sovereignty and self-government? Perhaps those Native American groups which
have *successfully* reorganized under the Indian Reorganization (Howard-
Wheeler) Act of 1934 would provide the best model for the sort of unity
Peshewegunzh envisions.
Grosvenor Pollard
via Elizabeth Pollard
Bitnet: uahebp01@uahvax1 Internet: uahebp01@asnuah.asn.net