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Up From Obscurity: Indian Rights Activism and the Development of Tribal-State Relations in the 1970s and 1980s Deep South

This dissertation examines tribal-state relations in Alabama and Louisiana during the 1970s and 1980s. These relationships were the outcomes of the Southern Indian Movement, which emerged just as regional and national racial politics began shifting and southern states started to recognize Indian populations through the development of Indian Affairs Commissions. Through these state agencies, Indian groups forged strong networks with local, state, and national agencies while advocating for cultural preservation and revitalization, economic development, and the implementation of community services. Commissions also brought formerly isolated groups, each with different goals and needs, together for the first time, creating an assortment of alliances and divisions. These unique relationships between tribes and states additionally served state interests by giving legislators the opportunity to wage public relations campaigns, to make racialized critiques of the Black Civil Rights Movement, to emphasize the South's indigenous identity, and to assert states' rights by assuming federal responsibilities.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/194053
Date January 2007
CreatorsBates, Denise Eileen
ContributorsMorrissey, Katherine G, Morrissey, Katherine G, Lomawaima, K. Tsianina, Anderson, Karen, Nichols, Roger
PublisherThe University of Arizona.
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext, Electronic Dissertation
RightsCopyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.

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