Title: Native American identity in the United States - Wikipedia
Headings: Native American identity in the United States
Native American identity in the United States
Contents
Definitions
Traditional
Constructed as an imagined community
Blood quantum
Residence on tribal lands
Construction by others
United States government definitions
Self-identification
Personal reasons for self-identification
Historic struggles
Unity and nationalism
Examples
Cherokee
Navajo
Lumbee
References
Bibliography

Content: Further, it is difficult to know what might be meant by any Native American racial identity. Race is a disputed term, but is often said to be a social (or political) rather than biological construct. The issue of Native American racial identity was discussed by Steve Russell (2002, p68), "American Indians have always had the theoretical option of removing themselves from a tribal community and becoming legally white. American law has made it easy for Indians to disappear because that disappearance has always been necessary to the ' Manifest Destiny ' that the United States span the continent that was, after all, occupied." Russell contrasts this with the reminder that Native Americans are "members of communities before members of a race." Traditional
Reservation life has often been a blend of the traditional and the contemporary. In 1877, this Lakota family living at South Dakota's Rose Bud Agency had both tipis and log cabins. Traditional definitions of "Indianness" are also important. There is a sense of "peoplehood" which links Indianness to sacred traditions, places, and shared history as indigenous people. This definition transcends academic and legal terminology.