American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Past research has consistently found that American Indians have traditionally turned out to vote at lower rates than do other citizens. Using two separate data sets, we examine this "turnout gap" over the past several decades. We find that not only has Native American turnout increased generally, but that the "gap" between Native Americans and non-Native Americans has declined substantially, and that in recent elections this "gap" has largely disappeared. We then provide a preliminary and tentative examination of possible causes for the decline, including the role of Indian gaming, mobilization by political parties and candidates, and shifting political values among Native Americans.

The problem driving this essay is how we, as scholars, can account for the complexities of the seemingly unified elements that make up tribally specific identity held among many gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and two-spirit (GLBTQ2) American Indians while asking them to disrupt oppressive sex and gender stabilities within the communities to which they are committed. These unified elements are the social practices, identity categories and historical depths that allow tribal peoples to know who they are and force non-Indians to know who they are not. I do not seek to problematize Native GLBTQ2 as a sexuality, sexual or gender identity. Rather, I am seeking to problematize the forms of power that come to bear on our analysis of on-the-ground identity experience; the ways we position ourselves and are positioned from uneven locations of power. Further, I seek to analyze the ways in which academic constructions of Native and GLBTQ2 identities have the potential to endorse and overinvest in certain experiences and representations.

C. E. Kelsey's census of nonreservation Indians in Northern California in 1905 to 1906 was the first enumeration of its kind. It counted 11,755 Indians that were not supported by the US government, which was far more than were thought to exist. Intended as the blueprint for implementing Kelsey's proposed policy of providing federal relief through land purchases, the census was later used for population studies. The census lacks explanatory documentation and scholars have introduced errors to the population totals. Using archival sources, this article explores the context and purpose of the census and identifies those subsequent errors.

American Indian stereotypes have varied according to each era's ideological necessities: Anglo-Americans made images of Natives into what they needed at the time. After Anglo-Americans broke from England, they needed a new identity to differentiate themselves from Europeans. The solution was to borrow attributes of American Indians to create an amalgam called "the New Man." This study examines the final (or current) stage in this amalgamation: the white man who can become native at will. Cordell Walker of the television series Walker: Texas Ranger is a half-Cherokee lawman. His "Indianness" is a secret identity that emerges whenever superhuman or spiritual qualities are needed. In addition, the series reflects issues of "American" masculinity: Walker appeared during a period when patriarchy faced cultural and political challenges from the women's movement. The reactionary political and religious ramifications of the television series are also examined.

This ethnographic study explores how contemporary Oneida people are using traditional beliefs and practices that are prescribed and enshrined in Haudenosaunee oral traditions to further their political ends. The current tribal government seeks to engender control over its citizens, affairs, and properties by using traditions of oral history to claim legitimacy. An overarching contention is over the process of governance as engendered by the process of consensus. This traditional Haudenosaunee practice is at the heart of the matter of the legitimacy of modern tribal government as it is used by the Oneida Nation of New York, including the use of banishment as a form of social control to ground its authority. "Loss of voice" has resulted in the disenrollment of those Oneida people who have been banished after questioning the current tribal government's legitimacy and practices. This essay reviews the actions of the Oneida Indian Nation as an evolving tribal authority as it attempts to reconcile the role of tradition, examining how authority is maintained in ongoing governance of contemporary tribal development.

Eugene Austin (1923-1980) was a member of the Lovelock Paiute Tribe of Nevada. The product of an impoverished and dysfunctional family and a former pupil of an off-reservation boarding school, Austin was a troubled and unhappy youth who yearned to escape the sparse opportunities and lack of mobility available to Native peoples of rural Nevada. In 1941, he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. He spent the next thirty-three years at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City, longer than any other inmate in the institution's history. He endured inhumane treatment during his incarceration, was lobotomized, and in 1974 was eventually paroled to a convalescent home in California. His arrest, trial, and incarceration reveal a number of tragic missteps in a criminal justice system that often failed to understand or accommodate the unique needs and circumstances posed by Native American offenders in the Southwest.