With the election of President Ronald Reagan in 1980, Indians faced a new challenge. Once in office, Reagan almost immediately attempted to slash the funds available to Indian groups. Although some of the most dramatic cuts were blocked, by the mid-1980s, the federal budget for crucial programs to better Indian health and education had been greatly diminished.
The drop in government funds created an increased urgency to find new sources of tribal income. Tribal governments, often against the wishes of their people, considered housing nuclear waste on reservations and allowing mineral companies to strip-mine their lands. Equally controversial was the growing number of gambling parlors established by tribes. Especially after the passage of the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which legalized some forms of gambling on reservations, many Indians groups began to operate casinos, both to increase tribal revenues and to bring jobs to their communities. Although the establishments have met opposition by both Indians and non-Indians, they have helped to revitalize several tribes. Perhaps the most dramatic example is the small Mashantucket Pequot tribe of Connecticut, which uses its annual casino revenues of more than $1 billion to aid poorer Indian groups and to operate the impressive Mashantucket Pequot museum and research center.
Despite these new sources of revenue, according to the 1990 census Indians continued to be the most impoverished minority in the United States. The census, however, also revealed an encouraging trend: The American Indian population was growing, and growing quickly. In 1990, more than two million Americans identified themselves as Indians, up 40 percent from only a decade earlier.
The figure certainly revealed that Indians were far from being the “vanishing race” they were said to be at the century’s beginning. But demographic scholars noted that the number probably also reflected a change in attitudes toward “Indianness.” People who in the past may have hidden their Indian ancestry for fear of discrimination were now proud to announce their heritage. In some non-Indian circles, fabricating Indian roots had even become fashionable, and in some cases lucrative. Actual Indians naturally grew resentful of Indian impostors, particularly those who made and sold “Indian” art. Responding to Indians’ complaints, Congress in 1990 passed a revision of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, criminalizing such misrepresentation.
In the last years of the 20th century, many non-Indians adopted a heartfelt (if disconcertingly superficial) respect for Indian peoples and societies. However misguided and inauthentic, popular movies such as Dances with Wolves (1990) and Pocahontas (1995), and New Age-influenced interpretations of Indian religious beliefs, at least revealed a desire to learn about, rather than suppress or destroy, Indian cultures. U. S. government agencies also made increased efforts to honor Indian heroes and legends. In two examples, the Pentagon in 1992 sponsored an exhibit celebrating the work of the Navajo Code Talkers, and the U. S. Mint in 1995 issued a new dollar featuring the likenesses of Sacagawea and her baby Jean-Baptiste Carbonneau.
Some legislation also reflected this shift in attitude toward Native peoples. For instance, the United States offered new protections for sacred Indian sites with 1990’s Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPR). This landmark law also called for the return to tribes of all Indian remains and artifacts collected from burial grounds that were held in the collections of government agencies. Enforcement of NAGPR has led to the repatriation of thousands of bones and ceremonial objects, as well as sparking a number of new controversies.
The 1990s also saw American Indians taking prominent roles in government and politics. In 1992, Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe, was first elected to the Senate, where he became a leader in the fight for Indian rights until his retirement in 2005. In 1993, Ada Deer became the first Indian woman to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs. And in 1996 (and again in 2000), Ojibway activist Winona LaDuke ran for vice president on the Green Party ticket. President Bill Clinton also signaled his desire to work closely with the leaders of all federally recognized tribes by inviting them to the White House in 1996, the first meeting of its kind since 1822.
Perhaps the most significant event to Indian peoples’ of the last years of the twentieth century was Canada’s return to Native control of nearly one-fifth of the country’s land mass through the formation of the new territory of Nunavut in 1999. Governed by an Inuit-dominated parliament, Nunavut represents an impressive victory for Indian demands for a return to self-government. Yet, it is only one battle of many still being fought by Indians seeking more control over their lives, their lands, and their destinies. And, increasingly, these are battles that both Indians and non-Indians are fighting together. As activist Suzan Shown Harjo wrote on the occasion of the Columbus Quincentennial, “It is necessary and well past time for others to amplify our voices and find their own to tell their neighbors and institutions that 500 years of this history is more than enough and must come to an end.”
World History
