Introduction
Directions
Do some internet research on the closest Native American reservation to where you live. What is the history that led to this reservation, and what is the current socioeconomic status of its people? Next, find a news article or media source describing current struggles or politics of Native American peoples. Relate these issues to Reading 9 to explain how current status is politically and historically shaped.
Unit 2: How the Idea of Race Changes over Time and Place
This weeks readings cover a range of topics that exemplify the ways in which race is
multidimensional, politically constituted, ever evolving and, therefore, not rooted in any natural
or inherent divisions. More importantly, they address the ways in which race is tied to power,
and that racial stigmatization and exclusion result in limited access to resources. Those who
benefit from these processes, those who do not face these forms of discrimination, have racial
privilege, as well as political and social power and authority.
Native Americans, (referred to as First Nations people, American Indians, and by their tribal
affiliation), have systematically been excluded from the resources of their lands since the first
Unit 2: How the Idea of Race Changes over Time and Place
European contact in what is now the United States.
Map of Native Land.
As a result of this systemic violence, Native Americans suffer from the highest levels of poverty
in the country. Additionally, through centuries of cultural genocide in which Native children
were forcibly taken from their families and forced to become Christian, speak English, and wear
the clothing of their colonizers, the result has been a loss of languages and culture for many
tribes. Representations in popular culture, including continued use as mascots for sports teams,
depict Native peoples as culturally inferior, uncivilized, animalistic savages rather than culturally
rich and diverse modern peoples of today, symbolically erasing them from visual
representation. After being removed from their land and forced onto reservation lands deemed
useless, today many reservations face fights from groups who now find the land useful in
regards to oil reserves and work to undermine the protections they face, such as the Dakota
Access Pipeline fight. The United States was constructed, and continues to be, in relation to
this history of colonization and genocide. The establishing documents, legal structures,
citizenship definitions were all defined in relation to the question around Native Americans and
where they fit in the narrative of democracy. Every aspect of American identity was, and
continues to be, centered around questions of belonging, immigration, land and property
rights, citizenship and autonomy, nature and the environment, each of which is defined in
relation to the place of Native Americans in our national narrative.
Unit 2: How the Idea of Race Changes over Time and Place
As a political strategy in a fight for recognition, Okamoto and Mora describe panethnicity
identity movements occurring amongst Asian and Latin American ethnic groups, as well as the
effects of doing so in reductionism and assumed sameness across these diverse groups. In
order to create visibility, as well as to organize around shared experiences, ethnic groups create
political coalitions around shared identities as a strategy for recognition and resources.
The third reading this week highlight another complexity of race through describing the
racialization of Muslim people in the United States. Despite the fact that the majority of Muslim
people in the world are in Asia and Africa, in the US, Muslim is often used to denote people
who are Arab from the Middle East, due to the geopolitical relationships, and the racial
othering tied to war and conflict. This clear example shows how racial groups are formed
through relationships of power, and exclusion; as well as their changing form.
Resources:
What Census Calls Us: A Historical Timeline
Measuring Race and Ethnicity Across the Decades: 1790-2010
Native American Land Appropriation Over Time
American Sociological Association, Statement on Use of Native American Nicknames, Logos,
and Mascots
