View Single Post
Old 10-22-2018, 04:46 PM   #15
ak_aramis
 
ak_aramis's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Alsea, OR
Default Re: Post nuke Alaska

One more thought: Why Amerind/amerindian/American Indian is a dirty word...

Alaska Natives did not have universal citizenship until 1974, with the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Amerindian is a collective label for the lower 48's natives, who were, by the 1960's, universally US Citizens. Decisions that protected the Amerind population didn't apply to the natives in the territories of Alaska, Hawaii, or American Samoa. When Alaska became a state, it still took over a decade to get the native minority civil rights from the federal government.

Only one tribe has a reservation - the Metlakatla. (Ethnically, they're Athabascan; socioculturally, they've diverged due to being on a reservation that the BIA basically stays out of.)

The Athabascans, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Haida, and a few others accept the term indian; each of these groups is provably related to some lower-48 tribes by language and genetics.
The Aleut are most closely related to the Ainu. The Eskimo to the Yuit and Inuit and each other.
The Aluutic are a hybrid of Aleut and Eskimo, in both language, culture, and genetics, but are a large regional group.

Also, during the 19-teens to 1940's, a strong program of destruction of the native culture was engaged in by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. A full on cultural annihilation. Teens kidnapped by the government at gunpoint, forced into residential schools, punished harshly for using their native languages and/or music, even beaten and/or forced to lick and/or ingest lye. (yes, I HAVE seen documentation on this by the school staff who did it).

(When I worked at the National Archives branch in Anchorage, I did holdings maintenance on the school records from Mt. Edgecombe Residential High School. It was a concentration camp in all but name. I was nauseated by the abuse listed in school files under "disciplinary actions.")
ak_aramis is offline   Reply With Quote