American Indian Culture and Research Journal

This article traces the rise in interest in obtaining formal recognition for all Native American Code Talkers. In doing so it examines tribal, state, and federal levels of recognition. These efforts resulted in several monuments and plaques erected by tribes to honor their respective code talkers, a 2004 Senate Hearing on the Contributions of Native American Code Talkers in United States Military Service, and the eventual passage of the Code Talker Recognition Act of October 15, 2008 (Public Law 110-420). Prior to this law only the Navajo, which was declassified in 1968 and have received the majority of recognition as Indian code talkers, had received formal congressional recognition for service as code talkers in the United States Armed Forces. However, the military intentionally recruited and trained several Indian code talking units including the Choctaw, Comanche, Meskwaki, Hopi, and Chippewa-Oneida prior to the Navajo program. Smaller numbers of members from other tribes were also used their tribal languages to transmit and receive military communications. While the Navajo were the largest such unit they were actually the last such unit formed. This law helps clarify the historical record while bringing equal honor and recognition to all Native Americans who served as code talkers in World Wars I and II..

The dispossession of American Indian land continued after passage of the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) in 1934, and lasted well into the late twentieth century. Early research focused primarily on the impacts of federal Indian policy on reservations and allotted land areas. Few studies examined why individual American Indian land owners sold their property and how the sales shaped the geography of Indian Country during the post-IRA era. The purpose of this study is to investigate the allotment problem at a local scale, using historical land maps and BIA documents to determine why Indian owned land bases continued to decline after 1934. The author’s tribal affiliation with the Kiowas of southwestern Oklahoma led to the selection of their land base as a subject of inquiry and geographical focal point. During the twentieth century, Kiowas lost approximately 59 percent of their land allotment base in the study area. Land owners sold their land just to survive, to subsidize incomes, to improve their living conditions, to counter owner fractionation, to relocation to urban areas, and to pay off debts. Some of these trends were common among all American rural communities associated with twentieth century economic shifts. Kiowas today are concerned about their land resources, arguing that land owners should collectively take a more proactive role in allotment land management, including the development of renewable energy resources projects. Keywords: Indigenous geographies, land dispossession, land allotments, Kiowa, Indian Reorganization Act of 1934

The social, economic, and political regulation of Canada's First Nations was codified in the Indian Act. Rooted in colonialism and paternalism, the Indian Act was created by the government of Canada to fulfill three functions: (1) to define who was and was not an Indian; (2) to civilize the Indian; and (3) to manage the Indian people and their lands. The Indian Act is restrictive and continues to govern virtually every aspect of Indian life including band membership, leisure activities, and land use and band leadership. Over time, some of the more restrictive policies governing Indians were dropped and more freedoms were granted. As a result, First Nations people began to enjoy some of the privileges set aside for mainstream Canadians. In addition, First Nations women began to enjoy some of the government-sponsored privileges that were previously reserved for First Nations men. There has been a rapid increase in the number of women elected to the role of chief in Canada's First Nations community throughout the past fifteen years, and this article explores some of the explanations for this recent phenomenon. Using the lens of postcolonial theory, the author explores women chiefs' experiences with the lingering effects of colonialism, colonial notions of womanhood, and how indigenous women have been able to oppose those beliefs.

Surgically replacing organs in the human body has become an acceptable and successful procedure in Western medicine. In more recent years, replacing major organs in the human body with those procured from deceased or living donors has become commonplace. Disparities exist at the earliest stages in the donor and transplantation process in that American Indians experience a higher prevalence of chronic diseases, which often require organ transplantation, and as a result suffer from high morbidity and mortality. Currently, nearly one thousand American Indian candidates are on the transplant waiting list in the United States. Despite the fact that American Indians are disproportionately in need of donor organs, they are significantly less likely to consent to donation than other racial or ethnic groups. Consequently, a lack of organs that are compatible matches for American Indian patients can add to long waiting periods for transplantation and contributes to higher death rates. A better understanding of the barriers, facilitators, and opportunities for organ donation and transplantation is needed for American Indians. This article attempts to fill this gap by reporting on the results of a dialogue between traditional American Indian healers and Western health-care providers regarding the barriers and facilitators to organ donation and transplantation.

This paper examines the history of two Native water rights settlements in Arizona to clarify their ethnohistorical and theoretical implications. It traces cross-cultural interactions and negotiations concerning Native water rights among the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, federal authorities, and other non-Native parties. These parties debated over the extent to which the two Native communities were entitled to water when the Salt River Project under the local water authority called the Salt River Valley Water Users’ Association, attempted to adjudicate water rights for the Native peoples in the first half of the twentieth century. In the second half of the twentieth century, various parties again engaged in fierce political debates over the necessity of constructing Orme Dam as part of the Central Arizona Project at the cost of removing the Fort McDowell Yavapai community and flooding their reservation land. Dealing with these problems, Native leaders of these two communities advanced their political campaigning and negotiation skills to keep their land and livelihood, and their efforts eventually led to the passage of the two successive water rights settlements in 1988 and 1990. This paper treats the history of these settlements as the product of culturally hybrid policymaking practices that resembled Native peace treaties rather than racially designated “white” policy that aimed to extinguish Native title.

In this article, the authors present results from a survey project that focused on the experiences of postsecondary American Indian (AI)/Alaska Native (AN)/Native Hawaiian (NH) students. They acknowledge that there are political and historical differences among and within these three broad categories of indigenous people; however, the research focuses on a few common obstacles to educational attainment for indigenous peoples in the United States. In the current study, they feel that it is appropriate to incorporate all three groups. The purpose of this study is to generate a profile of characteristics that contribute to, or at least are related to, the success of AI/AN/NH postsecondary students. They discuss the survey responses provided by a diverse Native student population currently enrolled in various postsecondary institutions across the United States. In particular, they found intriguing relationships between the family and cultural experiences of their survey respondents and their educational attainment. These findings provide a clear path for the future investigation of factors that affect educational attainment and the success of AI/AN/NH college and graduate students. The final portion of the article discusses the ways in which the authors plan to establish important collaborations with various indigenous nations, groups, and organizations that might be interested in the links among Native language, culture, and educational attainment.