Last modified: 2023-02-02 by rick wyatt
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1. In the United States of America there is no one body
that represent all Indian Nations in the Country (except the National Congress
of American Indians, which is a political body). It is left to the separate
nations to bond with others or not. However, there are many organizations that
are created for support, cooperation and maintaining things of general interest
or benefit. Sometimes those organizations are based on ethnic lines, and
sometimes on geographic location. There is no list of these organizations (at
least I couldn't find any), but I accidently locate some of them. In some cases
they are designated as associations, in other as inter-tribal (or intra-tribal)
councils, etc.
2. There are 573 Federally Recognized Tribes in USA, as listed by
the Bureau of Indian Affairs in November 2018. Most of the tribes are located in
Alaska and California, and several states have no Federally Recognized Tribes.
Many of the tribes are small and have no further entities within them, but some
have organized local government structure. Some have Chapters, some have
Districts, Clans or other types of local councils.
3. There are 63 State
Recognized Tribes in 12 States across USA. Their government structure is the
same as the FRT, and the only difference is how they communicate - with the
Federal or with the State Government.
4. The phenomenon in the USA is the
large number of Unrecognized Indian Tribes and some non-Indian Tribes (Metis in
the Northeast or Mixed Black/Indian or Black/White quasi-tribes in Southeast of
the USA). There is no exact number, but there are approximately several hundred
non-recognized tribes in the country. Some of them are registered as Non-profit
Incorporated Associations or similar, but some refuse to do so, and are trying
to gain Federal Recognition.
5. Indian/Tribal Corporations are corporate
bodies that help tribal governments to manage their lands or local business. The
most famous and largest are those in Alaska, where they are involved in managing
vast territories. In other parts of the country, those corporate bodies are
managing the casino gaming, spa facilities, hunting areas, touristic voyages
etc.
6. Tribal Flags. All Indian Tribes have their own flags. Some are
very proud of them and are well known within the vexillological community. Other
are very "shy" and usually display the flags in the official chambers or
similar. Some tribes are using several different flags, probably due to using
different flag-makers companies. In other cases, there are rather frequent
change of the official names of the tribes, and this lead to change of the flag.
However, we are in task to locate, describe and present to the World about one
thousand Indian Tribal flags (including corporate and local governments' flags).
1. The Canadian Government recognizes three
autochthonous groups of nations - Indians, Metis and Inuit. Unlike in the USA,
some native governments have a wide autonomy, even in the
administrative-territorial structure of the country. Nunavut Territory is first
level ATD, and there are some inter-level autonomous entities like Nunatsiavut,
Kativik, etc., which makes Canada pretty difficult to clear the things.
2. There is Assembly of First Nation as organization to represent and protect
all First Nations in Canada. There is also Metis Federation of Canada, and Inuit
Tapiriit Kanatami as Inuit organization in Canada.
3. There are many
inter-tribal organizations, usually known as Tribal Councils, which give support
and needing reaction on various questions for member tribes. They could have two
or more member tribes, and in some cases one tribe can be member of several
tribal councils for various reasons. It is unusual, but there are even some
cases when US tribe is a member of Canadian tribal council.
4. There are
614 First Nations in Canada, but there are also unknown number of Metis and
Inuit local governments, and some semi-independent Indian Bands.
5.
Corporations are mostly usual for Inuit governments in Canada, but there are
also such bodies for the other native governments.
6. Tribal flags. All
First Nations have their own flags. Some are very well known, and others are yet
to be discovered. As in the USA, there are also about one thousand such flags to
be found, described and presented to the World thru FOTW.
Valentin
Poposki, 14 July 2019
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