Tribal Critical Race Theory (TribalCrit)

By Jill Waldera

This framework was created because it addresses the complex relationship between American Indians and the United States federal government and begins to make sense of American Indians’ as both racial and legal/political groups and individuals.

Critical Race Theory grew in the mid-1970s as a reaction to Critical Legal Studies (CLS). CLS is legal scholarship that disputes that the law must focus on how it is applied to specific groups in specific circumstances. CLS uncovers contradictions in the law and explains the ways that laws create and uphold the tiered society in which we live (Gordon, 1990). CRT is ‘‘a form of opposition scholarship’’ (Calmore, 1992: p. 2161) that grew from a dissatisfaction that CLS was not moving fast enough in its efforts to evaluate and change societal and legal structures that specifically focused on race and racism (Delgado & Stefancic, 2000).

AN OVERVIEW OF TRIBAL CRITICAL RACE THEORY

1. Colonization is endemic to society.

The goal of interactions between the dominant U.S. society and American Indians has been to change

(‘‘colonize’’ or ‘‘civilize’’) American Indians to be more like those who hold power in the prevailing society. This development of colonization and its debilitating effects

are at the heart of TribalCrit.

2. U.S. policies toward Indigenous peoples are rooted in imperialism, White supremacy, and a desire for material gain.

This process highlights a discrepancy in the ways that White settlers and Indigenous peoples regarded the relationship between land and people.

3. Indigenous peoples occupy a liminal space that accounts for both the political and racialized natures of our identities.

The various circulating discourses all over the place what it means to be Indian as well as what constitutes American Indian education create a context in which American Indians must fight for the right to be defined as both a legal/ political and a racial group.

4. Indigenous peoples have a desire to obtain and forge tribal sovereignty, tribal autonomy, self-determination, and self-identification.

Tribal autonomy is the ability of communities and tribal nations to have control over present land bases, natural resources, and tribal national boundaries. Self-determination is the capacity to describe what happens with self-government, how, why, and to what ends, rather than being forced to ask consent from the United States. Self-identification is the capability and legitimacy for groups to express themselves and to create what it means to be Indian.

5. The concepts of culture, knowledge, and power take on new meaning when examined through an Indigenous lens.

TribalCrit wanders away from western/European ideas of culture, knowledge, and power and changes to concepts that have been circulating amid Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Indigenous people are molded by their cultural inheritance, and they participate in cultural production.

6. Governmental policies and educational policies toward Indigenous peoples are intimately linked around the problematic goal of assimilation.

TribalCrit clearly discards the request for assimilation in educational institutions for American Indian students. Deyhle’s (1995) work on cultural integrity highlights the fact that individuals, in order to be successful as both academics and as Indigenous people, must preserve a solid sense of their Indigenous identity as distinctive and as a source of pride.

7. Tribal philosophies, beliefs, customs, traditions, and visions for the future are central to understanding the lived realities of Indigenous peoples, but they also illustrate the differences and adaptability among individuals and groups.

Individuals are parts of communities rather than individuals on their own in the world. TribalCrit, identifies the significance of tribal philosophies, values, and beliefs—such as community and cooperation—in the practices of American Indian peoples.

8. Stories are not separate from theory; they make up theory and are, therefore, real and legitimate sources of data and ways of being.

Contrary to current demands for ‘‘scientifically based’’ research as being the only justifiable form of research, the eighth tenet of TribalCrit honors stories and oral information as tangible and authentic forms of data and ways of being.

9. Theory and practice are connected in deep and explicit ways such that scholars must work towards social change.

The research must be appropriate and address the problems of the community. TribalCrit research and practice changes from colonization and assimilation to the direction of a more real self-determination and tribal sovereignty.