ON BEING NATIVE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: New Meanings, New Data

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ON BEING NATIVE IN THE 21ST CENTURY New
Meanings, New Data

• C. Matthew Snipp
• Department of Sociology
• Stanford University

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Being Indian in America

• A category of civil status
• The sovereign rights of tribal governments
• The rights of tribal membership
• The substance of law and politics
• A category of race and/or ethnicity
• The substance of demographic research
• How White people (and others) know us..

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The evolving meaning of race

• An out-group designation
• Jews during the Spanish Inquisition
• A category of civil status
• The United States Constitution
• A biological concept
• Carl Linnaeus 1735
• Johann Friedrich Blumenbach 1776
• A social construct
• Ashley Montagu 1942
• Genomic research and continental origins

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Race as out-group

• Construction of others
• Demonization and the making of aliens
• Heathen infidels
• Noble savages

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Race as civil statusUnited States
ConstitutionArticle I, Section 2

• Representatives and direct Taxes shall be
  determined by adding to the whole Number of free
  Persons, including those bound to Service for a
  Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed,
  three fifths of all other Persons.
• The actual Enumeration shall be made . within
  every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such
  Manner as they shall by Law direct.

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Race as Biology

• Early classifications
• Linnaeus (1735) Americanus Rubenscens
• Blumenbach (1776) American
• 19th 20th century race science
• The search for homogeneous gene pools
• Accumulating genetic markers
• Modern biology and the human genome project

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PRINCETON, N.J., Jun. 15, 2005 - Orchid Cellmark
Inc. (Nasdaq ORCH), a leading worldwide provider
of identity DNA testing services, today announced
the launch of a new service that allows Native
American tribes to confirm the genetic lineage of
individuals seeking tribal enrollment.
PRESS RELEASE

• This new service can confirm the familial
  relationship of specific individuals to existing
  tribal members, in addition to determining their
  percentage of Native American-associated DNA.

Each tribe has its own criterion with respect to
the degree of relatedness a person must establish
to be eligible for enrollment. Because DNA
testing can establish genetic relatedness with
exceptional accuracy, it is a powerful tool to
confirm the biological relationships of
prospective tribal members.
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Scientific attempts to define race

• 150 years of failure
• The emergence of the concept of ethnicity
• Group designation based on common culture,
  behavior, social organization
• Julian Huxley and Charles Haddon 1936
• Ashley Montagu 1942
• American Indians as multiethnic

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Race as a Social Construct

• Ashley Montagu 1942
• Administrative definitions as social constructs
• Bureaucratic mandates
• Political interest groups

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Administrative Definitions for American Indians

• Blood Quantum
• Tribal membership
• American Indian Self-Determination and
  Educational Assistance Act (PL 93-638) 1975.
• Self-definition

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Blood Quantum

• Lewis Henry Morgan
• Ely S. Parker 1828-1895
• Military secretary to U.S. Grant 1863-66
• Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1869-71
• Measuring progress to civilization
• Commissioners of Indian Affairs set ¼ blood
  quantum in 1933
• IRA (1934) tribal constitutions

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Tribal membership

• Inclusive tribes
• Oklahoma Cherokee
• Some Ojibwe bands
• Exclusive tribes
• Some Pueblos
• Multiplicity of criteria established by tribal
  governments

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Self-definition

• The source of most data about race and ethnicity
  in the United States

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Some historical background about racial
classification in the United States

• Before 1977
• 1977 OMB Directive No. 15
• 1990 decennial census
• Post-1990 OMB review
• 1997 Revision of Directive No. 15
• 2000 decennial census

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Racial classification circa 1977

• Absent standards, lack of consistent records
• White, Non-white
• White, Black, Other
• 1977 OMB Directive No. 15
• American Indian or Alaskan Native
• Asian or Pacific Islander
• Black, not of Hispanic origin
• Hispanic origin
• White, not of Hispanic origin

These classifications should not be interpreted
as being scientific or anthropological in
nature.. (OMB Directive 15).
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Implementation of Directive 15

• ALL federal agencies, grantees and contractors
• 1980 census
• 1990 census
• a turning point in racial measurement

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Triangulating Race and Ethnicity in the 1990
Census
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Protests against the 1990 Census

• Omitted groups
• Arabs
• Taiwanese
• Native Hawaiians
• Inter-racial family organizations
• e.g. Atlanta-based RACE (Reclassify All Children
  Equally)
• Congressional inquiries
• Rep. Tom Sawyer (D-OH)

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OMB Revised Standard

• Issued October 30, 1997
• Effective January 1, 2003
• Modified categories
• Modified instructions

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OMB Revised Categories

• American Indian or Alaskan Native (including
  Central and South America)
• Asian
• Black or African American
• Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander
• White
• Hispanic-Latino/a a category of ethnicity

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OMB Revised Instructions

• Respondents shall be offered the option of
  selecting
• one or more racial designations. Recommended
• forms for the instruction accompanying the
  multiple response question are "Mark one or more"
  and
• "Select one or more."

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First Implementation of Revised OMB Standard
2000 Census
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Being Multiracial in America historic precedents

• Pocahontas and John Rolfe
• Sacagawea and Toussaint Charbonneau
• Sally Hemmings and Thomas Jefferson
• Loving v. Virginia 1967

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Colonial Mexicoadmixture classification

• Spanish-Indian mestizo
• Mestizo-Spanish F castizo
• Spanish-Castizo F spanish
• Negro-Spanish F mulatto
• Spanish-Mulatto F morisco
• Spanish-Morisco F albino
• Spanish-Albino F torna atras
• Indian-Torna Atras F lobo
• Lobo-Indian F zambaigo

• Zambaigo-Indian F cambujo
• Cambujo-Mulatto F albarazado
• Albarazado-Mulatto F barcino
• Barcino-Mulatto F coyote
• Indian-Coyote F chamiso
• Mestizo-Chamiso F coyote mestizo
• Coyote Mestizo-Mulatto F ahi te estas

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Projected United States Population by Single and
Multiple Origins, 2000 to 2100 (in millions)
Source Barry Edmonston et al. Recent Trends in
Intermarriage and Immigration and their Effects
on the Future Racial Composition of the United
States. Pp. 227-225 in J. Perlman and M.C.
Waters (eds.) The New Race Question How the
Census Counts Multiracial Individuals. New York
Russell Sage Foundation, 2002. Table 9.8.
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Projected United States Multiple Origin
Population by Race/Ethnic Group, 2000 to 2100
Source Barry Edmonston et al. Recent Trends in
Intermarriage and Immigration and their Effects
on the Future Racial Composition of the United
States. Pp. 227-225 in J. Perlman and M.C.
Waters (eds.) The New Race Question How the
Census Counts Multiracial Individuals. New York
Russell Sage Foundation, 2002. Table 9.8.
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Ten Most Common Multiracial Combinations by Race
and Hispanic Origin, 2000 Census and 2004
American Community Survey (000s)
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Change in the Number of Persons in the Largest
Multiracial Combinations Consisting of Legacy
Races (000s)
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Percent of Married Persons 18 Years and Older in
the Ten Largest Multiracial Groups in the 2004
American Community Survey
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Percent Educational Attainment of the Ten Largest
Multiracial Groups in the 2004 American Community
Survey, Persons Age 25 and Older
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Percent of Persons 18 Years and Older in the
Civilian Labor Force in the Ten Largest
Multiracial Groups in the 2004 American Community
Survey
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Distribution of American Indian and Alaska
Natives by Type of Land Area 1990, 2000 Alone,
2000 Multiracial
2000 Multiracial
2000 Alone
1990
Source Indian and Native American Training
Coalition, 2004, Table 1
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Unemployment Rates for AIAN Alone and AIAN
Multiracial Populations by Land Area, 2000 Census
Source Indian and Native American Training
Coalition, 2004, Table 3.
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Poverty Rates for AIAN Alone and AIAN Multiracial
Populations by Land Area, 2000 Census
Source Indian and Native American Training
Coalition, 2004, Table 3.
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California Health Interview Survey, 2001

• Multiple questions about race

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Percent Age Distribution of American Indian and
Alaska Native Women, California Health Interview
Survey, 2001
Source Swan et al. 2006, Table 4
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Percent Distribution of Education of American
Indian and Alaska Native Women, California Health
Interview Survey, 2001.
Source Swan et al. 2006, Table 4
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Percent Distribution of Usual Source of Care,
American Indian and Alaska Native Women,
California Health Interview Survey, 2001
Source Swan et al. 2006, Table 4
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Percent Distribution of American Indian and
Alaska Native Women Age 65 and Younger with IHS
Coverage, California Health Interview Survey, 2001
Source Swan et al. 2006, Table 4
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Percent Distribution of Current Smokers Among
American Indian and Alaska Native Women,
California Health Interview Survey, 2001
Source Swan et al. 2006, Table 4
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Percent Distribution of American Indian and
Alaska Native Women with a Body Mass Index
Greater Than or Equal to 30 (Obese), California
Health Interview Survey, 2001
Source Swan et al. 2006, Table 4
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Percent Distribution of Recent Cancer Screening
Tests Among American Indian and Alaska Native
Women, California Health Interview Survey, 2001
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Concluding Comments

• Heterogeneity and Instability of Racial Data
• Diversity amid Diversity
• The Complexity of Racial Measurement
• The importance of community engagement