Making Meaning of Urban American Indian Identity: A Multistage Integrative Process (Report‪)‬

American, Indians (also referred to herein as "Indians" or "Native people) who live in urban areas can find themselves constructing and negotiating their cultural identity from a complex social location. Moreover, the frequency, intensity, and quality of their interactions with the dominant culture and other ethnic groups may be quite different from those of American Indians living within the sociocultural boundedness of the reservation or tribal community setting. Cultural identity and tribal connectedness are often thought to be negatively affected by living in an urban area (Straus & Valentino, 1998). Indians in urban areas have been "negatively stereotyped by reservation people as 'fallen' or diminished Indians, 'sell-outs' who abandoned tribal homeland, practice, politics and problems for the good life in the city" (Straus & Valentino, 1998, p. 109). American Indians living in the urban environment may be considered to have lost much of their understanding of tribal-specific traditions and practices because of the deemphasis on tribal identities that appears to have accompanied urbanization (Thornton, 1997). Urban Indians are often conceptualized as being conflicted about their ethnic identity and having developed generalized or "detribalized" pan-Indian identities that meld beliefs, values, and practices from various tribal groups while lacking identification with any specific tribe (Nagel, 1982; Nakao, 2002; Thomas, 1968). The cultural identity of urban Indians is continually scrutinized and questioned, even to the point of provoking the question of whether an American Indian living in an urban area can still be considered "Indian" (Peroff & Wildcat, 2002). The increased contact with non-Indians that has accompanied urbanization is also thought to have had a significant effect on cultural identity. Rates of intermarriage between Indians and non-Indians have increased almost exponentially since the 1960s and 1970s, hand in hand with urbanization (Sandefur & Liebler, 1997; Sandefur & McKinnell, 1986). Eschbach (1995) estimated that in the mid-1990s, approximately 80 percent of all Indian people were biracial or multiracial. Moreover, Thornton (1997) predicted that mixed-bloodedness would continue to rise among the American Indian population, with the result being that only 8 percent of American Indians will have one-half or more blood quantum by the end of this century.