1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910810672103321

Autore

Sturm Circe <1967->

Titolo

Blood politics : race, culture, and identity in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma / / Circe Sturm

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2002

ISBN

9786612762574

1-282-76257-5

0-520-93608-6

1-59734-503-2

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (269 p.)

Disciplina

305.897/55

Soggetti

Cherokee Indians - Ethnic identity

Cherokee Indians - Mixed descent

Cherokee Indians - Social conditions

Ethnohistory - Oklahoma

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-244) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Note To The Reader -- 1. Opening -- 2. Blood, Culture, And Race: Cherokee Politics And Identity In The Eighteenth Century -- 3. Race As Nation, Race As Blood Quantum: The Racial Politics Of Cherokee Nationalism In The Nineteenth Century -- 4. Law Of Blood, Politics Of Nation: The Political Foundations Of Racial Rule In The Cherokee Nation, 1907-2000 -- 5. Social Classification And Racial Contestation: Local Non-National Interpretations Of Cherokee Identity -- 6. Blood And Marriage: The Interplay Of Kinship, Race, And Power In Traditional Cherokee Communities -- 7. Challenging The Color Line: The Trials And Tribulations Of The Cherokee Freedmen -- 8. Closing -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Circe Sturm takes a bold and original approach to one of the most highly charged and important issues in the United States today: race and national identity. Focusing on the Oklahoma Cherokee, she examines how Cherokee identity is socially and politically constructed, and how that process is embedded in ideas of blood, color, and race.



Not quite a century ago, blood degree varied among Cherokee citizens from full blood to 1/256, but today the range is far greater--from full blood to 1/2048. This trend raises questions about the symbolic significance of blood and the degree to which blood connections can stretch and still carry a sense of legitimacy. It also raises questions about how much racial blending can occur before Cherokees cease to be identified as a distinct people and what danger is posed to Cherokee sovereignty if the federal government continues to identify Cherokees and other Native Americans on a racial basis. Combining contemporary ethnography and ethnohistory, Sturm's sophisticated and insightful analysis probes the intersection of race and national identity, the process of nation formation, and the dangers in linking racial and national identities.