About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

436 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. vii (1978)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0436 and id is 1 raw text is: FOREWORD A great many changes have occurred in American society and among Native Americans since the appearance of an earlier issue of THE ANNALS (May 1957) devoted to an examination of American Indians and American Life. The Indian population has grown rapidly and has become urban even more rapidly. A civil rights movement has swept over the country, dramatically changing the legal framework within which racial and cultural contacts occur and heightening the sense of group identity of America's minorities. Significant changes in the economic, political, and educational opportunities of the members of minority races have occurred, but these changes only reveal more clearly the great inequalities and the discrimina- tion that remain. These have been years of conflict, as claims have been pressed-in the face of resistance-by various forms of black power, brown power, and red power. The articles in this issue of THE ANNALS examine many aspects of these changes among American Indians and in the relationships of Indians to the government and the larger society. Our aim, in selecting the authors- distinguished students of Native American life-has been to focus on the recent developments. Yet we are struck also by the continuity. This can best be shown, perhaps, simply by repeating the foreword that we wrote for the 1957 volume, for it may suggest the distance we have yet to go before the country has truly redefined its racial and ethnic practices. It may also emphasize the importance of the study of those practices for an under- standing of American society: White Americans seem continually to be rediscovering the Indians. In the last few years, a growing Indian population on a limited land base, a vigorous national controversy over desegregation, a turn in the Indian policy of the federal govern- ment, and world-wide attention to questions of colonialism and minorities have been among the forces renewing America's interest in her Indian citizens. The student of Indian affairs recognizes that to some degree the status of Indians in American society is similar to the status of other minorities. To a significant degree, however, Indian experience has been different, for unlike any other minority group in the nation, they were here, living in unified societies, when the European settlers came. Their response to invasion may have as much in common with the minorities in Eastern Europe as with the willing and unwilling migrants to America, torn as they were from their cultural roots. There is scarcely a major issue of policy in the United States that has not been in- volved in the relationships of Indians and whites. Questions of universal citizenship and franchise; of land use and conservation; of the melting pot versus pluralism; of prejudice, discrimination, and segregation; of colonialism; of the separation of church and state; of private property and communal property; and of the extent and nature of government responsibility for education-to mention several basic issues-have all involved policy questions concerning Indians. We need scarcely stress the importance and value of a study ofthe place of American Indians in American life. To the social scientist, it offers a valuable field for the testing of theories of social and cultural change, of acculturation, of personality vii

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most