Adoption,incorporation,and a sense of citizenship and belonging in Indigenous Nations and culture: a Haudenosaunee perspective

Abstract

During the salvage ethnography period in the early 20th century, the adoption of scholars by tribes provided those scholars with access to Indigenous Knowledge and garnered their support of Indigenous agendas at a time when there were few Indigenous scholars. Adoptive practices and protocols today raise complex questions that have very real legal, political, and cultural repercussions. The introduction of enrollment cards and blood quantum—how are we to make sense of old adoption protocols of Indigenous Nations outlined in traditional narratives such as Creation? The answer for Haudenosaunee communities lies in two of the core narratives: Creation and Great Law. What do these narratives illuminate regarding adoptive cultural practices that today can be utilized in an ever changing political, legal, and culture framework using the long-understood notion of Good Mindedness?