18 October 2007
American Indians Seek Greater Understanding, Recognition
Education seen as key to countering misperceptions, celebrating successes
Washington — “Maybe you should just tell them that we still exist,” an American Indian told the moderator of a focus group during a recent study that not only has highlighted continuing misconceptions about American Indians, but also has revealed the sympathy with which many Americans view Indians’ history and desire to learn more about their past and present.
“Tell the story of American Indians truthfully and honestly [in an Indian museum],” a non-Indian proposed, “and tell that story in both the historical and contemporary concepts. ... They survived everything that happened to them -- they survived.”
The study revealed that, even though American Indians might feel isolated, misunderstood and culturally threatened in contemporary America, they often express pride in their economic accomplishments and a conviction that their lives are improving. “The biggest fight that we have is [about] identity,” a New York Indian told researchers.
The study Walking a Mile: A First Step Toward Mutual Understanding is based on 12 focus groups -- seven with Indians and five with non-Indians -- conducted by researchers from the nonpartisan public opinion research organization Public Agenda. Such focus groups provide qualitative information on how the participants view the place of American Indians in the United States today, but more opinion research and polling is needed to reveal how widely held those views are, according to experts.
“This was exploratory research ... designed to pose as many questions as it answered,” said Public Agenda’s Michael Remaley. “Clearly, there is much more to be done to further the conversation nationally.”
According to the report, non-Indians generally regret what happened to Indians prior to the 20th century but have little knowledge of their active, vibrant culture today or fail to realize that past attempts to forcibly assimilate Indians remain a painful, living memory.
A SHARED DESIRE FOR IMPROVED UNDERSTANDING
Both Indians and non-Indians would like to see American Indians’ history and contemporary life better understood by non-Indians. “It’d be refreshing to have a more frank and honest depiction and for our children to learn [more] through school,” said a non-Indian man from Minneapolis.
The report says that, although generally sympathetic to America’s indigenous peoples, non-Indians who live near large Indian populations strongly resent what they consider the “preferential treatment” Indians receive, and most fail to understand the complex legal status of American Indians and their special rights and privileges under numerous treaties signed by the U.S. government in the 18th and 19th centuries.
U.S. law recognizes American Indian tribes as "domestic dependent nations" within the United States. As such, they retain sovereign powers over their members and territory, except where such powers specifically have been modified by U.S. law.
Each of the 561 nations recognized by the U.S. government determines who qualifies as a member. An individual can qualify as a member of more than one tribe. Approximately 4.5 million U.S. citizens, or 1.5 percent of the total population, identify themselves as full or part American Indians or Alaska Natives, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau estimate.
One of the lesser-known facts about American Indians today is that most live in metropolitan areas and not on the 227,000 square kilometers of land held in trust for reservations. For example, more than 100,000 Indians live in Los Angeles and nearly 100,000 in New York. Approximately 71 percent have graduated from high school, and 12 percent hold bachelor’s degrees. A young Crow woman expressed frustration that non-Indians are unaware that there are Crow-speaking professionals such as lawyers, pharmacists and engineers.
Some of the Indians in the focus groups acknowledged that historical depictions and school curricula about American Indians have changed in the last 30 to 40 years, but their perception that non-Indians knew little about their more recent history was confirmed by non-Indian participants in the focus groups. “None of us knows anything about Indians,” one New Yorker said, with others nodding in agreement.
But the authors of the report found cause for optimism in the readiness of many non-Indians “to face up to their lack of knowledge, which ... suggests that many of the gaps can be bridged.”
There was a consensus about the need for more education on American Indian history and culture, whether in a school or in a museum setting. “That non-Indians want to both preserve Indian culture and learn more about Indians’ history and contemporary life would probably come as a pleasant surprise to a great many American Indians, whose feeling of invisibility in mainstream America haunts them wherever they live,” the report’s authors concluded.
The full text of the report is available online on the Public Agenda Web site.
Also see Diversity.
