American Indian Ethnic Renewal: Red Power and the Resurgence of Identity and Culture

Does activism matter? This book answers with a clear "yes." American Indian Ethnic Renewal traces the growth of the American Indian population over the past forty years, when the number of Native Americans grew from fewer than one-half million in 1950 to nearly 2 million in 1990. This quadrupling of the American Indian population cannot be explained by rising birth rates, declining death rates, or immigration. Instead, the growth in the number of American Indians is the result of an increased willingness of Americans to identify themselves as Indians. What is driving this increased ethnic identification? In American Indian Ethnic Renewal, Joane Nagel identifies several historical forces which have converged to create an urban Indian population base, a reservation and urban Indian organizational infrastructure, and a broad cultural climate of ethnic pride and militancy. Central among these forces was federal Indian "Termination" policy which, ironically, was designed to assimilate and de-tribalize Native America. Reactions against Termination were nurtured by the Civil Rights era atmosphere of ethnic pride to become a central focus of the native rights activist movement known as "Red Power." This resurgence of American Indian ethnic pride inspired increased Indian ethnic identification, launched a renaissance in American Indian culture, language, art, and spirituality, and eventually contributed to the replacement of Termination with new federal policies affirming tribal Self- Determination. American Indian Ethnic Renewal offers a general theory of ethnic resurgence which stresses both structure and agency--the role of politics and the importance of collective and individual action--in understanding how ethnic groups revitalize and reinvent themselves. Scholars and students of American Indians, social movements and activism, and recent United States history, as well as the general reader interested in Native American life, will all find this an engaging and informative work.

"This is an exceptional book."--Choice

Does activism matter? This book answers with a clear "yes." American Indian Ethnic Renewal traces the growth of the American Indian population over the past forty years, when the number of Native Americans grew from fewer than one-half million in 1950 to nearly 2 million in 1990. This

quadrupling of the American Indian population cannot be explained by rising birth rates, declining death rates, or immigration. Instead, the growth in the number of American Indians is the result of an increased willingness of Americans to identify themselves as Indians. What is driving this

increased ethnic identification? In American Indian Ethnic Renewal, Joane Nagel identifies several historical forces which have converged to create an urban Indian population base, a reservation and urban Indian organizational infrastructure, and a broad cultural climate of ethnic pride and

militancy. Central among these forces was federal Indian "Termination" policy which, ironically, was designed to assimilate and de-tribalize Native America. Reactions against Termination were nurtured by the Civil Rights era atmosphere of ethnic pride to become a central focus of the native rights

activist movement known as "Red Power." This resurgence of American Indian ethnic pride inspired increased Indian ethnic identification, launched a renaissance in American Indian culture, language, art, and spirituality, and eventually contributed to the replacement of Termination with new federal

policies affirming tribal Self- Determination. American Indian Ethnic Renewal offers a general theory of ethnic resurgence which stresses both structure and agency--the role of politics and the importance of collective and individual action--in understanding how ethnic groups revitalize and reinvent

themselves. Scholars and students of American Indians, social movements and activism, and recent United States history, as well as the general reader interested in Native American life, will all find this an engaging and informative work.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-285) and index.

About the Author -

Joane Nagel is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kansas. Her work on ethnicity and nationalism includes a number of books and articles focusing on the politics of ethnicity, ethnic identity, and ethnic movements in the United States, the Middle East, and Africa where she has lived and worked. Her other works include Competitive Ethnic Relations (with Susan Olzak, 1986), The Struggle Continues! World Bank and African Development Bank Investments in Liberian Education, 1972-1985 (With Conrad W. Snyder, Jr., 1986), and a forthcoming work on the legacies of American Indian activism at Alcatraz and Wounded Knee (with Troy Johnson).

A Note on Terminology

Introduction: American Indian Ethnic Renewal

PART I: Ethnic Renewal

1. Constructing Ethnic Identity

2. Constructing Culture

3. Deconstructing Ethnicity

PART II: Red Power and the Resurgence of Indian Identity

4. American Indian Population Growth: Changing Patterns of Indian Ethnic Identification

5. The Politics of American Indian Ethnicity: Solving the Puzzle of Indian Ethnic Resurgence

6. Red Power: Reforging Identity and Culture

PART III: Legacies of Red Power: Renewal and Reform

7. Renewing Culture and Community

8. Reconstructing Federal Indian Policy: From Termination to Self-Determination

9. The Problematics of American Indian Ethnicity

References

Index