American Indian identity matters: The political economy of identity and ethnic group boundaries.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study addresses the negotiation and contestation of American Indian identity. It explores the tension between power relationships through which the question of identity is framed and the experience and self-understanding that individuals and groups have of their identity as Indians and tribes. To the extent that this study deals directly with the political economy of American Indian identity and ethnic groups boundaries, it does not attempt to answer the etiology of identity, but instead contextualizes the question against the backdrop of social and political structures of power. Theoretically, this study advances a social relations approach to identity that focuses on the transactional and interactional aspects of identity and the interconnections between experience, context, and relationships between and among individuals, groups, and their social and cultural environment. Methodologically, it combines structural and phenomenological approaches in its comparison and analyses of three case studies: (1) regulations, procedures, and criteria for determining whether and which groups deserve federal recognition as an Indian tribe; (2) the legal circumscription of American Indian identity in the production, marketing, and sale of American Indian art; and (3) the ethnic verification of American Indian applicants in employment and admission to selective institutions of higher education. Informed by these illustrative comparisons, this study's findings suggest that American Indian identity is acted and enacted upon through processes of negotiation between individuals, groups, and the larger social environment.