AMERICAN-INDIAN ETHNIC RENEWAL - POLITICS AND THE RESURGENCE OF IDENTITY

Ethnic renewal is the reconstruction of one's ethnic identity by recla iming a discarded identity, replacing or amending an identity in cin e xisting ethnic identity repertoire, or filling a personal ethnic void. Between 1960 and 1990, the number of Americans reporting an American Indian race in the U.S. Census more than tripled. This increase cannot be accounted for by simple population growth (increased births, decre ased deaths, immigration), or by changing enumeration definitions or t echniques. Researchers have concluded that much of this growth in the American Indian population results from ''ethnic switching,'' where in dividuals who previously identified themselves as ''non-Indian'' chang ed their race to ''Indian'' in a later census. The question posed here is: Why does such ethnic switching occur? Drawing on historical analy ses and interview data, I argue that this growth in the American India n population is one instance of ethnic renewal. I identify three facto rs promoting individual ethnic renewal: (I) federal Indian policy, (2) American ethnic politics, and (3) American Indian political activism. These three political factors raised American Indian ethnic conscious ness and encouraged individuals to claim or reclaim their Native Ameri can ancestry, contributing to the observed Indian census population in crease. American Indian ethnic renewal contributes to our general unde rstanding of how ethnicity is socially constructed.