In Search of Lost Tribes: Anthropology and the Federal Acknowledgement Process

Recently adopted federal regulations outline a procedure whereby nonfederally recognized Indian tribes can "petition" the Bureau of Indian Affairs for formal acknowledgement. Such a change in status offers significant enhancement of services available to members of previously unrecognized tribes, as well as formal legitimacy of their status. It is estimated that more than 100 Indian tribes in the United States do not have federal recognition. Submittinga petition involves compiling ethnohistorical and ethnographic data which demonstrate the origins and contemporary sociopolitical structure of the group. The process, which has been in effect since 1978, has proved to be very burdensome to petitioning groups due to the large amount of research required to provide the necessary data. It is suggested that more involvement by anthropologists in recognition research would help to alleviate the petitioners' problems and would offer unique opportunities for applied anthropologists.