In an environment where the Indian tribes, especially tribes that have casinos, routinely kick out members because they don’t have enough tribal blood, full blooded Indians still face the most racism, according to an article in Indian Country Today.
According to the article, written by Steve Russell, “Race,” having no freestanding reality, is most often conflated with color, and so racial stigma follows color.”
Russell’s article notes that in some states it is “cool” to be part Indian, at the same time that full-blooded Indians are often the target of discrimination.
Another article in the same publication, this one by Duane Champagne, makes the point that “Ethnicity and indigeneity are two different forms of cultural identity.”
He writes that “The material, political, cultural, legal, and economic forces of the contemporary world are largely predisposed to invite people of indigenous origins to abandon tribal identities and adopt an ethnic identity.”
He adds, “In the U.S., there are more people of partial indigenous descent than there are people who identify with a tribal nation. Many ethnic Indians in the U.S. maintain a tribal line of descent like Cherokee or Choctaw, along with descent from English, Irish or other immigrant nationalities.”
He warns that, “Alliances and mutual support among indigenous tribal and indigenous ethnic groups will support achievement of indigenous tribal rights and goals. However, the indigenous ethnic group movement appears to want to abandon tribal community and rights.”
