Authors: Stephen Kulis et al.

Journal: Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology

Publication Year: April 1, 2017

Keywords: Ethnicity, Identity, Adolescents

Abstract: 
Urban American Indian (AI) communities are diverse, rapidly growing, and relatively under-examined in research. The proportion of AIs living on reservations or Native lands has declined from 62% in 1970 to 22% in 2010, while those living in urban areas are an increasing majority, 71% in 2010 (National Urban Indian Family Coalition [NUIFC], 2008; US Census Bureau, 2010). Although the AI population remains less concentrated than non-Natives in large metropolitan centers, in 2010 42% of those identifying only as AI lived in large cities of 750,000 or more (US Census Bureau, 2012). Starting in the late 19th century, American Indian migration into cities was promoted through the removal of American Indian children from Native lands to boarding schools and their training to fulfill domestic labor jobs in White society (Slivka, 2011). Migration was greatly accelerated in the last half century by Federal policies that relocated families and terminated tribal rights in the 1950s and 1960s (Burt, 1986). While pervasive poverty and limited educational, job training, and employment opportunities on reservations have sustained the momentum for urban migration, many American Indian families continue to struggle in cities to secure jobs, education, health care and social services. American Indians have the highest poverty rate of all racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. (27%), more than double the rate for non-Hispanic Whites (Macartney, Bishaw, & Fontenot, 2013). In urban areas, poverty rates are also much higher for American Indians than for the general population, reaching over 25% in metropolitan areas with large numbers of American Indians—Chicago, Denver, Houston, New York, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, and Tucson.

There is relatively little empirical research on the cultural identities of urban AI youth, even as more AI families have lived for multiple generations in the city. Although their communities are quite diverse—differing by region, migration history and tribal backgrounds—urban AIs face similar social and cultural challenges that may be attributed to colonization and historical trauma. Compared to non-Natives, urban AIs have markedly higher rates of lacking a high school degree; of unemployment, inadequate housing, and homelessness; of infant mortality, accidental death, diabetes, and substance use-related illnesses and mortality; and of child abuse and neglect (NUIFC, 2008). A major resource for promoting wellbeing, however, is that urban AIs are able to sustain their cultures and identities by maintaining deep connections to reservation homelands or tribal communities, (Clifford, 2007). Research on identity formation of urban AI youth is needed to understand their distinctive identity processes and the role of indigenous identity in promoting the health and wellbeing of urban AIs.

This study reports the ways that urban AI youth in a large Southwestern metropolis reported their family ethnic backgrounds, cultural orientations, and connections to their indigenous heritage. Following Markstrom's (2011) model of indigenous identity, the study utilized latent class analysis to determine how identity-related variables clustered in subgroups with distinctive patterns, and examined how the strength and nature of AI ethnic identity varied across these subgroups.

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Source: Link to Original Article.

Type of Resource: Peer-reviewed scientific article