American Indian Political Action I::

Tribalism and Supratribalism

American Indian political action flourished in the fertile political and cultural soil of the 1960s. The civil rights era encouraged Indian ethnic identification and pride, which in turn promoted Indian activism. Indian activism promoted ethnic pride and renewal. These combined forces prompted the reversal of federal Indian policy. Of course, each aspect mentioned has fed into each other.

In the modern era of Native American history, cities or urban centres have acted as the crucibles for political activism. As part of termination policy in the 1940s and 1950s, federal government encouraged Indians to relocate to cities. Ravaged by half a century of reservation underdevelopment and despair, many Indians moved off-reservation. By the mid-1970s, some 160,000 Indians had taken part in the relocation programme.

Federal government had hoped that such migration would facilitate Indian assimilation and the termination of Indian tribes. However, frequently the opposite occurred. Several studies of urban Indians in San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, Baltimore and in Canada's British Columbia, for example found that few Indians had assimilated in ways federal government had hoped. One study even found that, "Indians who had lived their entire life in the city were as traditional as those who had only recently left the reservation". In San Francisco, Navajo and Kiowa migrants, for example, worked hard to maintain their tribal identities and to revitalise traditional values and practices in the urban setting. This is often called tribalism, which exists both on and off the reservation.

Urban centres became a hothouse for political activism, whereby Indians from countless tribes gravitated together. For example, a 1966 survey of 3000 Indians in Los Angeles found representatives of more than 70 tribes. Under such conditions, closely-held tribal identities - or tribalism - never disappeared - and it is important to remember that - but there was a growing perception among urban Indians of the interests they shared and the problems and political conditions they faced. This is known as supratribalism or pan-Indianism.

Supratribalism was also increased through growing movement among Indians as they commuting for various reasons, at various times, and for various durations between reservation and non-reservation locations. Indian organisations and newspapers slowly began being organised around such a pan-Indian consciousness. In 1970, for example, the American Indian Press Association was founded which served as a critical source of news for Indian and non-Indian publications nationwide. At one point it was sending news packets to more than 150 Indian newspapers. For the first time, the political agenda relating to Indians was beginning to be shaped by Indians themselves - Indians who had a growing sense of tribal and supratribal consciousness.