Matrix Of The Peoplehood Matrix

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INTRODUCTION In 1831, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that the fact that the U.S. government had made treaties with various Native American nations in the past did not set precedent for treating said nations as independent, sovereign states. Despite the facts that the United States had made legal treaties with Native Americans numerous times and that U.S. law states that the United States can only make treaties with foreign nations, the Supreme Court decision in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) declared that Native American nations were not sovereign but “domestic dependent” nations, subject to the plenary power of the United States. This abrogation of Cherokee (and, by extension, Native American) sovereignty did not only disrupt …show more content…

Rather, identity is a complex concept, the product of a myriad of individual factors. In order to be able to better conceptualize the intricate process by which Native American identity is formed, Tom Holm created the Peoplehood Matrix. According to this diagram, identity is based on four large categories: language, sacred history, place/territory, and ceremonial cycle. Native identity is not based on any one of these factors by itself; rather, identity is formed through the interaction and combination of all …show more content…

For example, to some nations, certain geographical or topographical features have deep religious and ceremonial meaning. This concept is known as “sacred geography.” For example, in the Cherokee religion, it is believed that the evidence of past religious events (i.e. the creation of the Cherokee people) can still be seen on the physical landscape of what is now known as the Southeastern United States. When the United States Supreme Court ruled in 1831 that the Cherokee Nation fell under United States plenary power, it paved the way for the removal of the Cherokee and other nations to land west of the Mississippi River which was not, at that time, as desirable to American settlers. Not only were removed Native Americans forced to trek hundreds of miles in deplorable conditions, but in doing so they were made to leave behind centuries of ancestral burials, sacred geography, and overall forcibly separated from a landscape which was a central part of their

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