Implications of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act on Small Indian Groups

Implications of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act on Small Indian Groups Name Institutional Affiliation Implications of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act on Small Indian Groups The sovereignty of Native American tribes in the US is one of the hallmarks of co-existence and freedom. At present, there are a number of Native American tribes in the US, all of which are considered independent and self-governing, with elaborate executive, legislative, and judicial structures. As such, many of the internal conflicts that arise within such tribes are often resolved through these avenues, which further emphasizes the tribe’s sovereignty (Bailey & Sturtevant, 2008). However, the Cherokee tribe has been making headlines both presently and historically regarding its view on tribal citizenship and membership of the Cherokee Freedmen. This tribe and its leadership have displayed varied opinions over the years regarding the membership of the Cherokee Freedmen. Most recently, this has resulted in the exclusion of thousands of descendants of the Cherokee Freedmen from the tribal rolls for failure of meeting a blood quantum, which has become a serious matter with legal, social, and political implications (Conley, 2014; Kuckkahn, n.d). In addition to this problem, the development of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act in 1990 has dealt a huge blow to a significant number of Indians that desire to create art. A similar problem plagues the Duwamish people, who are still searching for federal recognition even after 25 years of trying to attain it (Kuckkahn, n.d). This law inadvertently makes it illegal for any Indian that is not officially registered in the scrolls of their tribe to effectively create and sell any kind of art, seeing as it will be inevitably perceived as a slight on the Indian people and their culture. At the same time, this act fails to provide clauses that address the plight of groups such as the Cherokee Freedmen, many of whom until today are struggling to obtain official recognition within their tribes. In essence, this act makes it illegal for any of the Cherokee Freedmen to actively create and sell Cherokee art, seeing as they are technically not officially recognized by their community. This paper looks to explore this issue from a holistic perspective and hopefully, develop some potential solutions that could help solve the problem of surrounding the creation and sale of art by Indians that lack the tribal membership of the Cherokee Freedmen. First off, it must be acknowledged that this act in its entirety denies small groups of Native Indians that are not officially registered the freedom to express themselves through their arts and crafts. At present, the descendants of many Cherokee Freedmen are suffering from a tribal excommunication of sorts as a result of their heritage, something that they have completely nothing to do with. During the American Civil War, the Cherokee tribe chose to align with the Confederacy, which was against the law established by the Union under which these tribes lived (Lawson, 2013). As such, their rebellion was seen as a spite of sorts on the Union, and in order to remedy this situation, the government ordered that all Freedmen in Cherokee territory should be granted membership and rights similar to thos...