Native voices on Native appropriation

ABSTRACT

In U.S. media, appropriation of American Indian cultures and identities is a recurring topic. Yet, there is no academic research that examines American Indian experiences with and attitudes towards multiple types of this appropriation. We analyzed written responses about appropriation from 362 tribally-enrolled American Indian participants. We found that these participants witness many types of appropriation on a regular basis. While a small percentage expressed support for this appropriation, the vast majority voiced opposition, most commonly because they perceive it as disrespectful, ignorant, and oppressive. Many participants described negative feelings they experience when encountering appropriation, especially anger. Some take action to eliminate appropriation, especially educating others. We situate our findings in the context of settler colonialism, and explain how this appropriation operates as microaggressions, which generate a hostile climate. Lastly, we discuss ways our findings can inform social change and uphold the sovereignty of American Indian tribal nations.

KEYWORDS:

• American Indians
• appropriation
• culture
• colonialism
• discrimination
• microaggression

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge consultation with Angela R. Riley and Lawrence R. Baca. This research was supported by internal funding from UCLA, Brown University, and Springfield College.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

We are unable to share our qualitative data because doing so has the potential to reveal information associated with the identities of our participants.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 To align with prevailing practices among American Indian Peoples, we use the term Native appropriation instead of American Indian appropriation. To reduce verbiage, we use the abbreviation NA for Native appropriation.

2 To reduce verbiage, we use the abbreviation of AI for American Indians. We use the term American Indians because we are focused on Indigenous Peoples from the 48 contiguous U.S. states and this term is associated with AI nation sovereignty.

3 We use the term “people” to refer to AI individuals, and “Peoples” to refer to AI people and nations more generally.

4 The nuances and complexities of AI identity are beyond the scope of this article.