Indian tribes' construct of membership in 18th & 19th cent.
Nell Newton (nnewton@american.edu)
Fri, 24 Sep 1993 18:17:37 EDT
With great apologies for my lack of knowledge of issues that probably have
been well-explored before, I'd like some help in identifying some good
books/articles on the bases used by tribes to decide "who belongs?" My
sense is that "race" was not a concept to tribes before contact. After con-
tact, tribes often incorporated non-Indians into their groups by what the
dominant culture (legal at least) called "adoption" (not to mention
those captured who stayed). I'm trying to unravel the concepts of race and
membership for an article I'm working on. In particular, I'm looking for
sources about ways of defining the group that tribes used in the 18th cent.,
and especially in the 19th century when allotment forced tribes for the
first time to identify -- who is a member by constructing tribal rolls. Any
help will be gratefully received and acknowleged in the finished piece.
Please reply to me personally at NNewton@american.edu. Thanks!