The Center’s final Spring Speakers Series event will be held this coming Tuesday, April 10th, at 2pm in the Moot Court Room (please note this room is on the fourth floor, and is a change from our usual location).
April 10, 2012, 2:00pm (Moot Court Room)
Author:
Circe Sturm
Becoming Indian: The Struggle Over Cherokee Identity in the Twenty-First Century
Commentators:
David Cornsilk
Prof. Pam Palmater (Ryerson University)
Turtle Talk 
I read the excerpt offered in this article, and I have to say that I have been making some similar observations myself over the last couple of years. After reading books like the Autobiography of Russell Means or the new edition of the book written by Wilma Mankiller, or the newest edition of the Indian and Tribal Rights handbook, one thing has stood out to me in a startling way. The people who “look” indian,and whose families have been living on reservations for generations, live a reality that is light years from my own. Even though I am 1/4 african, I look very caucasion, with high cheekbones, and slightly slanted, green eyes. Nothing that would stand out to the unaware observer. My life up until the point of coming out publicly as a self-identified abenaki, and certainly before sharing the results of my DNA test, was and mostly still is, incredibly priviledged. Even reading about what life on many reservations has been like, I’m sure cannot ever truly convey what people have and continue to experience in every day life. I can certainly understand why many people in federally recognized tribes have concerns, and even resentments towards people like me, who really, don’t have a clue what it’s REALLY like to be an indian. As I have grown older and matured I cannot deny that they and I live in completely different worlds. Does that mean I don’t have any native blood? No. But, I think those of us who are descendants, but came to learn about our culture after becoming adults, and who have benefited from growing up in families who could and DID pass for white, need to have more sensitivity and respect for those who could not.
Good point. However many Cherokee Citizens who are given the right to identify as Cherokee have also grown up in that privileged state….many are visually caucasian. So Native identity goes beyond this. “Are you obviously Native,” and have you suffered from racial discrimination? I think many in the Cherokee Nation can say “no” to this. Yet they are accepted as citizens. So it isn’t just the racial visibility and discrimination that makes up Native identity. Heck, there was even a white Cherokee chief at one point. Identity is very intangible, which is why the issue is so complicated.