Navigating Indigenous Identity

Are we talking about Indians, American Indians, Natives, Native Americans, Indigenous Peoples, First Peoples, or Original Peoples? Are we talking about “tribes” or sovereign nations? Are we talking about what we call ourselves or what the colonial powers named us? Furthermore, are we talking about race, ethnicity, cultural identity, tribal identity, national identity, or some other form of identity? Indigenous folk in the United States navigate and negotiate complex amounts of social identity. Why is this important? Because for Native and Indigenous persons in the US, the consequences and lived experiences associated with these different forms of identity representation are at best, complex, and at worst, alienating and discriminatory. Indigeneity involves racial, cultural, and political identity criteria, which serve to construct boundaries–boundaries that serve to confuse our ability to define and identify Indigeneity. Indeed, very little consensus exists about Indigenous identity among or between individuals, communities, or academia. We continue to struggle with questions like: What constitutes Indigeneity? How do we measure Indianness? How do we account for identity variations between reservation, non-reservation, urban, and rural living? Who truly possesses, performs, or holds American Indian identity? In other words, who is a “real Indian” today? This talk will explore my findings through conversations with 698 people who represent 322 federally recognized tribes. Dr. Dwanna L. McKay, Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies in the Race, Ethnicity, and Migration Studies Program at Colorado College