Table Of ContentNative Acts
Native Acts
Law, Recognition, and Cultural Authenticity
Joanne Barker
Duke university Press
Durham & London 2011
© 2011 Duke University Press. All rights reserved. Printed in
the United States of America on acid- free paper ♾. Designed
by Jennifer Hill. Typeset in Arno Pro by Tseng Information
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Data appear on the last printed page of this book.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introductions 1
PART I: ReCognITIon
1 Of the “Indian Tribe” 27
2 In Cherokee v. Delaware 41
PART II: MeMbeRSHIP
3 Of the “Indian Member” 81
4 In Martinez v. Santa Clara (and Vice Versa) 98
5 In Disenrollment 146
PART III: TRADITIon
6 Of Marriage and Sexuality 189
7 Origins 217
Notes 229
Bibliography 249
Index 277
Acknowledgments
I thank my Mom—Sally Mae Anslyn—for her
loving support in a process that I know she finds
confusing for its endless supplies of acronyms and
mysterious demands on my time and attentions. I
simply could not have made it through the labored
process of writing a book without her.
I also had the bearings of friendship along the
way. Dont Rhine has loved me always and gener-
ously. Dianne Cantor listened to near daily rants
on my ever- shifting levels of motivation in work-
ing on a manuscript for what seemed like a decade.
J. Kēhaulani Kauanui took invaluable time at cru-
cial moments to encourage and support me and my
work. Clay Dumont offered many hours of critical
insight on difficult issues. Alice Sunshine is the best
roommate and kitty co- staffer ever. Melissa Nelson
has been a good friend over many necessary hours
of excursion from work.
I am deeply grateful to colleagues and friends
who provided me with comradeship and many nec-
viii ACknowLeDgMenTS
essary hours of conversation and support over the years, especially Tomás
Almaguer, Falu Bakrania, Luz Calvo, Robert Keith Collins, Jon Daehnke,
Catriona Rueba Esquibel, Colin Farish, Jack D. Forbes, Velia Garcia,
Andrew Jolivétte, Phil Klasky, Amy Lonetree, Bob McAndrews, Keta
Miranda, Alfreda Mitre, Betty Parent, John Carlos Perea, Roberto Rivera,
Gabriela Segovia-McGahan, Amy Sueyoshi, and Kathy Wallace.
I am indebted to advisors who spent invaluable time and energy with
me, guiding me through the difficult theoretical and methodological as-
pects of this book. In its dissertation form, Donna Haraway, Louis Owens,
and Angela Davis provided countless hours of counsel and direction. As
dissertation advisor, Donna earned sainthood (if you believe in that sort of
thing) for her skillful and steady negotiation of my stubbornness, density,
and panic. Louis became a good friend when we were both at Davis, and he
is now sorely missed. Angela posed provocative questions and challenges
along with gentle guidance and direction.
I am indebted to Ken Wissoker, editorial director, Duke University
Press, for his leadership and encouragement, and to the readers who pro-
vided me with invaluable editorial and bibliographic suggestions. Thank
you also to Anitra Grisales for copyediting assistance at an especially cru-
cial moment and to Timothy Elfenbein, assistant managing editor at Duke
University Press, and copy editor Christine Dahlin, for their careful guid-
ance through the final stages of production.
I was invited to present material from this study in various forums,
where discussions provided me with provocative and interesting perspec-
tives on the issues I have taken up in this book. Thanks to J. Kēhaulani
Kauanui for inviting me to participate in a same- sex marriage debate with
David Cornsilk and Craig Womack at the Native American and Indige-
nous Studies Conference at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, in May
2007. Thanks to Jean O’Brien for inviting me to participate in a round-
table discussion about recognition with J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, Amy Den
Ouden, and Malinda Maynor Lowery at the Native American and Indige-
nous Studies Conference at the University of Georgia, Athens, in April
2008. Thanks to David Shorter, Jessica Cattelino, Mishuana Goeman, May-
lei Blackwell, and other members of the Indigenous Sovereignty Research
Group for reading with me the introduction and chapter six and for hosting
a public presentation on disenrollment at the University of California, Los
Angeles, in June 2010. Thanks to Jennifer Denetdale and Alyosha Goldstein
ACknowLeDgMenTS ix
for hosting a brown bag discussion and presentation on chapter four at the
University of New Mexico in October 2010.
Several individuals gave invaluable counsel on specific chapters. All
faults in the resulting arguments are my own, but I am particularly indebted
to the generosities of John A. Gomez Jr., David Cornsilk, and Rusty Creed
Brown for providing keen insights and sharing resources.
Postdoctoral fellowships were provided by the Ford Foundation (2005–
6), San Francisco State University President’s Sabbatical (Spring 2010),
and the American Indian Studies Center at the University of California,
Los Angeles (2010–11).
As a note of acknowledgment, while our works are very different, the
title of this book was inspired by Lisa Lowe’s Immigrant Acts: On Asian
American Cultural Politics (1996), for its multiple plays with the idea of legal
acts as cultural acts of identity formation.
