THE MASSACHUSETTS INDIAN ENFRANCHISEMENT ACT - ETHNIC CONTEST IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT, 1849-1869

This paper examines the granting of citizenship and voting rights to I ndians in Massachusetts as a case of inter-ethnic negotiation much mor e complicated than the rubric of Indian-white policy suggests. The aut hors first examine the ways in which outside events altered state poli cy, despite strong continuities in ethnic boundaries. They then explor e the complex definition of ethnic identity by residents within Indian enclave communities, and the different understanding of this identity among various groups of white outsiders. These varying definitions co nfirm and elaborate social science theories of boundary maintenance an d ethnic identity. Most treatments of this event to date have examined it in relation to twentieth-century land claims-rather than as a mult iethnic negotiation firmly situated in the mid-nineteenth century cont ext of legal changes for African-Americans of the post-Civil War era.