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Rebecca Tsosie
Abstracted from: Rebecca Tsosie, The New
Challenge to Native Identity: an Essay on "Indigeneity" and
"Whiteness" , 18 Washington University Journal of Law and Policy 55
-98, (2005) (253 Footnotes)
It has never seemed controversial that Native peoples in the United
States are "indigenous." In fact, pow-wow pundits often joke that in
the 1940s, "Indians" were classified by U.S. census takers as being
of the "Mongolian race," and then, by the 1960s, they had their own
"American Indian" category, until the 1980s, when they became
"Native American." However, that term became somewhat discredited in
the 1990s when Native political activists disclaimed "American"
identity in favor of the more globally politically correct term
"indigenous peoples." "Today," the joke continues, "I'm Other." This
joke has always inspired enthusiastic howls from the crowd, most of
whom understand themselves in the context of a particular tribal
identity-- Dine, Tohono O'odham, Lakota. Unfortunately, however, the
tide has turned. Now there is a concerted effort to challenge the
notion of "indigeneity" and to suggest that the concept is somehow
distinct from Native identity, and furthermore, may be constructive
of Euro-American identity! This essay builds upon Cheryl Harris's
claim that "whiteness" is a form of "property" and suggests that the
current challenges to Native "indigeneity" respond to the perception
that "privilege" and "status" have attached to the racial and
cultural identity of Native peoples in recent years through various
"special" legal rights. This article suggests that, with respect to
indigenous peoples, the discourse of "whiteness" requires analysis
within a global, as well as national context. This article examines
four areas within which there is an active debate over "indigenous
status": political rights under international human rights law;
cultural rights under international human rights law; rights to land
and to ancestral human remains under domestic law; and rights to
genetic resources. The root issue within each of these areas is who
"owns" Native identity--political, cultural, ancestral, genetic--and
what role does the concept of "indigeneity" play in these assertions
of "ownership" ? The article concludes by suggesting that Native
cultural sovereignty, including tribal law and tribal
epistemologies, will have an important role in asserting and
maintaining Native rights to tangible and intangible tribal
resources. |
