Color is such a defi ning characteristic of America's racial disharmony that minorities often huddle together under the sobriquet “people of color.” This essay examines the signifi cance of color to American Indians — the only ethnic minority subjected to a government certifi cation process — and concludes that neither skin color nor a certifi cate of degree of Indian blood from the Bureau of Indian Affairs is suffi cient to defi ne Indian identity. No alternative is suggested that would make Indians identifi able by visual regard.
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