Academic letter grades may potentially encourage or discourage Cherokee students from doing well in school and seeking advanced degrees beyond secondary school. Cherokee Nation has just over 100 public school districts located inside the reservation boundaries, in which more than 200,000 students are being served daily, with nearly 32,000 being…

From 2004-06, the Osage Nation of Oklahoma reformed its government from a tribal council system to a tripartite constitution. Following this reorganization, through a community outreach effort a 25-year strategic plan was developed to guide the Nation moving forward. Now, a decade into the plan, recent Osage land (re)acquisition across the…

Public charter schools present tremendous opportunities to increase the access of Native students to high-quality schools. Understanding current growth and the location of schools serving Native students is an important first step in the larger policy discussion on Native education and charter schools. This brief provides the latest data available…

In the five hundred years of European and American globalization of the world, seldom have Indigenous peoples been invited to a constitutional convention and first legislature to express their perspectives and concerns. Rarely in the five-hundred-year history of the European and American colonization of the world were the rights of the Indigenous…

After two elections and several recounts and court decisions, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma has installed a new principal chief for the first time in a dozen years. Unlike his predecessor, Chief Bill John Baker has not opposed descendants of the tribe's former slaves, known as the Cherokee Freedmen, having rights as tribal citizens. That legal…

Plains Indian cultures have left numerous forms of Native drawings in the form of painted and drawn clothing, robes, tipis and tipi liners, shields and shield covers, calendars, ledger books, religious and historical drawings, and maps. Native drawings of geographic features are distinguished from other forms of drawings by their focus on the…

Growing up on a reservation, one takes a few things for granted. One assumes the presence of Native people and an understanding of Native life. When one leaves that environment, however, one quickly understands that not everyone has spent substantial parts of their lives in contact with Native people. In this essay, the author provides his…

In this article, the author talks about the experiences of many of the people involved in the Carnegie Project, an effort in the 1960s to establish ties with the "tribal community"--people who spoke Cherokee as their first language and lived in small kin-related settlements spread across five counties in northeastern Oklahoma--and…

Examines the destruction of the economic world of the Comanche, Kowa, Cheyenne and Arapaho, focusing on some of their capacities and early achievements in relationship to their economic base, and viewing the impact of the changes brought by the white man. (Author/JM)

Argues that the distinction between discrimination and genocide made by the authors is a very slender reed upon which to hang an argument: economic genocide'' reduces to two successive economic dislocations, generated by land hunger and supporting government policy. (Author/JM)

Oklahoma is a microcosm of American Indian country. Water rights, tribal government impotence, jurisdiction, tribal membership, treaty rights, taxation, sovereignty, racism, and poor housing, education, and health are all vital issues facing the Indian tribes of Oklahoma. In order to understand the complexity of these issues, a review of the…

A report by the Department of the Interior on the misuse of Johnson-O'Malley funds in Oklahoma is reprinted in its entirety. The questionable costs total over $400 thousand, and the report recommends that the Bureau of Indian Affairs seek compensation and adjustment for the misspent funds. (KM)

This profile provides data from the 1980 census on American Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts in the total U.S. population, on American Indian reservations, and in historic areas of Oklahoma (excluding urbanized areas). Bar graphs illustrate data on (1) the overall population; (2) population by geographic region; (3) population by standard federal…

The American Indian population exceeded 1 million (1,366,676) in 1980, showing an increase of about 574,000 persons or 72% over the decade. The 1980 Census also identified 42,162 Eskimo and 14,205 Aleut who are still highly concentrated in Alaska. The substantially larger count is the result of natural increase and overall improvements in census…

Analyzes the complex interaction between economic, political, and cultural variables demonstrating how the Choctaw Nation, in the southeastern Oklahoma timber region, has become a politically dependent labor force alienated from its land resources. Discusses benefits of Choctaw economic initiatives as well as potential moral and cultural costs of…