Federal Indian Identification Policy: A Usurpation of Indigenous Sovereignty in North America

In: Policy studies journal: an international journal of public policy, Volume 16, Issue 4, p. 778-798

Abstract

An examination of the historical legal relationship between American Indian peoples & the US, spelling out precisely how the latter formally recognized the former as being nations, entitled under international custom & convention -- & by provision of the US Constitution itself -- to all the rights & privileges thereof. One of the inherent rights of any nation is the determination of its own membership, in accordance with its own criteria. However, the US has unilaterally assigned itself the prerogative of establishing "standards," convenient to itself, for determining who is & is not "qualified" to be considered an American Indian. The financial & other economic factors underlying federal policies on Indian identification are detailed, with special emphasis on the relation between the massive loss of land to Indians & the establishment of 'blood quanta" identification criteria within the 1887 General Allotment Act. Comparisons are drawn between federal quantum policy & the eugenics policies employed by other modern states such as Nazi Germany, South Africa, & Israel. 34 References. AA