The UKs’ slowness in bringing in passports with biometric data means that Britons (along with quite a few others) will be routinely fingerprinted and photographed on entry to the US under the VISIT program . Clicking a few links got me to the Privacy Impact Assessment: Executive Summary for this (pdf file), which reveals the comforting information that
If necessary, the information that is collected will be shared with other law enforcement agencies at the federal, state, local, foreign, or tribal level, who are lawfully engaged in collecting law enforcement intelligence information and who need access to the information in order to carry out their law enforcement duties.
… at tribal level?
at tribal level?
They mean that your mom will be examining your underwear both before and after internaional flights. In front of a team of highly trained customs agent-nuns, most of whom knew you when you were 13. The underpants inspection will of course take place on national TV.
You should be glad that Ashcroft didn’t get what he really wanted.
You do know what they mean, right? Native American “reservations” are (mostly) sovereign in the US.
Keith is spot on. Many legislators have been very, very sad to discover that failure to include tribal governments accidentally fatally hampered favorite laws.
Until only recently, many under-age smokers were very, very happy that someone committed this very oversight. Pyromaniac firework lovers remain, for the most part, pleased with Tribal sovereignty as well.
What I wonder: since it is impossible to sue tribes, how long before they start operating drag-racing strips?
The “accidental failure” to include tribal governments under state laws would have no effect either way under treaty rights between any given First Nation and the United States federal government. Its use in this context is a simple acknowledgement of the role of law enforcement in this context. I am sorry to discover the use of the term “tribal” is amusing to people who consider themselves to be social progressives.
Actually, GOAF, I was pretty alarmed at the prospect of my personal data being shared with any of these agencies….
But as a non-American I hadn’t appreciated the legal significance of the term. There are, after all, tribal authorities in places like Pakistan, Afghanistan, and so forth, and the prospect of the US government sharing data on foreign nationals with such bodies struck me as pretty scary.
Dr. Ghost,
Didn’t mean to be taken too seriously up there— just figured that it was an official use, and I was looking for a lead-in to the potentially revenue-raising drag-strip suggestion. In a slightly related note, I have to say that I’ve only rarely met Native Americans who preferred any term other than “indian”. Clearly, this experience may well be a-typical.
I have to say that I’ve only rarely met Native Americans who preferred any term other than “indian”. Clearly, this experience may well be a-typical.
Posted by Kikuchiyo at April 3, 2004 03:36 PM
If I understand your comment correctly, you may be conflating “tribal” with “indian”. The sovereign territories of Native Americans or Indians are referred to in the format of Nation, as in Navajo Nation or Lummi Nation, closer to my neck of the woods. The governments are referred to as “Tribal Governments”. This is common nomenclature. Although there is a derogatory sensibility to the use of “tribal”, as in association with un-modern, I don’t think it is viewed that way by Indians/Native Americans. As far as I know, they refer to themselves as belonging to the tribe, or a member of a nation. The organizational elements of these terms tribe, nation, and band are conflated by the fact that in many instances the US government put members of different tribes onto one reservation and thus I believe there are differences in self identificaion based on these individual historical differences.
Use of the term Native American or Indian is problematic, for many of the groups that form indigenous Americans. In Canada, they are called and refer to themselves as “First Nations”. This nomenclature is slipping into the U.S. discourse. In Alaska, they refer to themselves as “Alakan Natives” and consider themselves quite separately from continental indigenous Americans.
Use of the term “Indian” follows a trajectory similar with other oppressed groups in the U.S., such as Black/Negro/African-American. It was Indian, then it went to Native American, then in the sixties, there was the “American Indian Movement” which sought to reclaim “Indian” represented by Vine Deloria’s book “Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto”. The federal government has always, to my knowledge, used the term “Indian”, as in “Bureau of Indian Affairs”.
If I understand your comment correctly, you may be conflating “tribal” with “indian”.
I’m sorry. I intended to raise an only slightly related point, which has more to do with the intersection of the claim that
Use of the term Native American or Indian is problematic, for many of the groups that form indigenous Americans
and my own personal experience. It just seemed interesting to me that academic writing seems so much more concerned about the problematic nomenclature then the agents to whom the nomenclature is applied. Again: in my experience, and with very notable exceptions.
“It just seemed interesting to me that academic writing seems so much more concerned about the problematic nomenclature then the agents to whom the nomenclature is applied.“—kikuchiyo
That’s how it seems to you, and it well may be true in some cases. But you don’t really know how concerned these people are about “the agents to whom the nomenclature is applied”. You’re assuming a lack of concern in general because it is your observation that, in these cases, the choice of nomenclature gives little weight to the preferences of the people referenced.
And I do think that sort of consideration (for preference) is both polite and instructive. But I don’t agree that it should necessarily be normative. The way that I describe others asserts a worldview that has consequences in its assertion. The description is a moral act. I believe that my use of “Indian” would have adverse consequences and I wish to avoid those. I am, unfortunately, also insulting a number of people who would prefer that I describe them otherwise. I regret that. But, in my estimation, it’s the lesser of two evils. What people want to be “called” is important and relevant. But it’s not decisive, I don’t think.
Interestingly enough “first nations” seems to be used in Australia as well. “Aboriginal/Aborigine” suffers from not being indigenous while the several hundred aboriginal languages means that using the local term won’t cover the whole continent. the Victorian word “koori” enjoyed a brief vogue a few years ago but now seems to be on its way out for precisely this reason. As an alternative, specifically regional tribal names are now being used but of course can only cover a particlar area and also tend to lead to disputes as to who is entitled to call themselves Murri or Nyoongar or whatever. “Black” is used but suffers as a description because particularly in the South East many high profile Aborigines are fair or red haired and light of skin but “blackfella” is being more used although more it seems in the north where “yellafella” is a derogatory reference by full bloods for those with (as they see it) not enough Aboriginal blood. How do other indigenes deal with the problem of finding a non European imposed name?
À Gauche
Jeremy Alder
Amaravati
Anggarrgoon
Audhumlan Conspiracy
H.E. Baber
Philip Blosser
Paul Broderick
Matt Brown
Diana Buccafurni
Brandon Butler
Keith Burgess-Jackson
Certain Doubts
David Chalmers
Noam Chomsky
The Conservative Philosopher
Desert Landscapes
Denis Dutton
David Efird
Karl Elliott
David Estlund
Experimental Philosophy
Fake Barn County
Kai von Fintel
Russell Arben Fox
Garden of Forking Paths
Roger Gathman
Michael Green
Scott Hagaman
Helen Habermann
David Hildebrand
John Holbo
Christopher Grau
Jonathan Ichikawa
Tom Irish
Michelle Jenkins
Adam Kotsko
Barry Lam
Language Hat
Language Log
Christian Lee
Brian Leiter
Stephen Lenhart
Clayton Littlejohn
Roderick T. Long
Joshua Macy
Mad Grad
Jonathan Martin
Matthew McGrattan
Marc Moffett
Geoffrey Nunberg
Orange Philosophy
Philosophy Carnival
Philosophy, et cetera
Philosophy of Art
Douglas Portmore
Philosophy from the 617 (moribund)
Jeremy Pierce
Punishment Theory
Geoff Pynn
Timothy Quigley (moribund?)
Conor Roddy
Sappho's Breathing
Anders Schoubye
Wolfgang Schwartz
Scribo
Michael Sevel
Tom Stoneham (moribund)
Adam Swenson
Peter Suber
Eddie Thomas
Joe Ulatowski
Bruce Umbaugh
What is the name ...
Matt Weiner
Will Wilkinson
Jessica Wilson
Young Hegelian
Richard Zach
Psychology
Donyell Coleman
Deborah Frisch
Milt Rosenberg
Tom Stafford
Law
Ann Althouse
Stephen Bainbridge
Jack Balkin
Douglass A. Berman
Francesca Bignami
BlunkettWatch
Jack Bogdanski
Paul L. Caron
Conglomerate
Jeff Cooper
Disability Law
Displacement of Concepts
Wayne Eastman
Eric Fink
Victor Fleischer (on hiatus)
Peter Friedman
Michael Froomkin
Bernard Hibbitts
Walter Hutchens
InstaPundit
Andis Kaulins
Lawmeme
Edward Lee
Karl-Friedrich Lenz
Larry Lessig
Mirror of Justice
Eric Muller
Nathan Oman
Opinio Juris
John Palfrey
Ken Parish
Punishment Theory
Larry Ribstein
The Right Coast
D. Gordon Smith
Lawrence Solum
Peter Tillers
Transatlantic Assembly
Lawrence Velvel
David Wagner
Kim Weatherall
Yale Constitution Society
Tun Yin
History
Blogenspiel
Timothy Burke
Rebunk
Naomi Chana
Chapati Mystery
Cliopatria
Juan Cole
Cranky Professor
Greg Daly
James Davila
Sherman Dorn
Michael Drout
Frog in a Well
Frogs and Ravens
Early Modern Notes
Evan Garcia
George Mason History bloggers
Ghost in the Machine
Rebecca Goetz
Invisible Adjunct (inactive)
Jason Kuznicki
Konrad Mitchell Lawson
Danny Loss
Liberty and Power
Danny Loss
Ether MacAllum Stewart
Pam Mack
Heather Mathews
James Meadway
Medieval Studies
H.D. Miller
Caleb McDaniel
Marc Mulholland
Received Ideas
Renaissance Weblog
Nathaniel Robinson
Jacob Remes (moribund?)
Christopher Sheil
Red Ted
Time Travelling Is Easy
Brian Ulrich
Shana Worthen
Computers/media/communication
Lauren Andreacchi (moribund)
Eric Behrens
Joseph Bosco
Danah Boyd
David Brake
Collin Brooke
Maximilian Dornseif (moribund)
Jeff Erickson
Ed Felten
Lance Fortnow
Louise Ferguson
Anne Galloway
Jason Gallo
Josh Greenberg
Alex Halavais
Sariel Har-Peled
Tracy Kennedy
Tim Lambert
Liz Lawley
Michael O'Foghlu
Jose Luis Orihuela (moribund)
Alex Pang
Sebastian Paquet
Fernando Pereira
Pink Bunny of Battle
Ranting Professors
Jay Rosen
Ken Rufo
Douglas Rushkoff
Vika Safrin
Rob Schaap (Blogorrhoea)
Frank Schaap
Robert A. Stewart
Suresh Venkatasubramanian
Ray Trygstad
Jill Walker
Phil Windley
Siva Vaidahyanathan
Anthropology
Kerim Friedman
Alex Golub
Martijn de Koning
Nicholas Packwood
Geography
Stentor Danielson
Benjamin Heumann
Scott Whitlock
Education
Edward Bilodeau
Jenny D.
Richard Kahn
Progressive Teachers
Kelvin Thompson (defunct?)
Mark Byron
Business administration
Michael Watkins (moribund)
Literature, language, culture
Mike Arnzen
Brandon Barr
Michael Berube
The Blogora
Colin Brayton
John Bruce
Miriam Burstein
Chris Cagle
Jean Chu
Hans Coppens
Tyler Curtain
Cultural Revolution
Terry Dean
Joseph Duemer
Flaschenpost
Kathleen Fitzpatrick
Jonathan Goodwin
Rachael Groner
Alison Hale
Household Opera
Dennis Jerz
Jason Jones
Miriam Jones
Matthew Kirschenbaum
Steven Krause
Lilliputian Lilith
Catherine Liu
John Lovas
Gerald Lucas
Making Contact
Barry Mauer
Erin O'Connor
Print Culture
Clancy Ratcliff
Matthias Rip
A.G. Rud
Amardeep Singh
Steve Shaviro
Thanks ... Zombie
Vera Tobin
Chuck Tryon
University Diaries
Classics
Michael Hendry
David Meadows
Religion
AKM Adam
Ryan Overbey
Telford Work (moribund)
Library Science
Norma Bruce
Music
Kyle Gann
ionarts
Tim Rutherford-Johnson
Greg Sandow
Scott Spiegelberg
Biology/Medicine
Pradeep Atluri
Bloviator
Anthony Cox
Susan Ferrari (moribund)
Amy Greenwood
La Di Da
John M. Lynch
Charles Murtaugh (moribund)
Paul Z. Myers
Respectful of Otters
Josh Rosenau
Universal Acid
Amity Wilczek (moribund)
Theodore Wong (moribund)
Physics/Applied Physics
Trish Amuntrud
Sean Carroll
Jacques Distler
Stephen Hsu
Irascible Professor
Andrew Jaffe
Michael Nielsen
Chad Orzel
String Coffee Table
Math/Statistics
Dead Parrots
Andrew Gelman
Christopher Genovese
Moment, Linger on
Jason Rosenhouse
Vlorbik
Peter Woit
Complex Systems
Petter Holme
Luis Rocha
Cosma Shalizi
Bill Tozier
Chemistry
"Keneth Miles"
Engineering
Zack Amjal
Chris Hall
University Administration
Frank Admissions (moribund?)
Architecture/Urban development
City Comforts (urban planning)
Unfolio
Panchromatica
Earth Sciences
Our Take
Who Knows?
Bitch Ph.D.
Just Tenured
Playing School
Professor Goose
This Academic Life
Other sources of information
Arts and Letters Daily
Boston Review
Imprints
Political Theory Daily Review
Science and Technology Daily Review