This dissertation project involves the research of a cultural anthropology student from the University of California-Davis. The project involves ethnographic interviews with a group of mixed-heritage Cherokee Native Americans in Oklahoma. The student will administer a demographic survey to about 300 Cherokee tribal members in Tulsa and in Tahlequah, the political center of the Cherokee nation. Then a sample of pictures of mixed-race faces blending `white`, `black` and `red` phenotypes, along with brief hypothetical biographies will be used as stimuli for in-depth interviews to probe for biases and decision rules used by Cherokee to attribute Indian and non-Indian identity. In addition the student will collect oral histories from traditional community leaders, study published media about Cherokee identity and relations with `mixed-bloods`, and will conduct at least 50 open-ended, in-depth interviews with different sub-types of Cherokee identities on mixed heritage identity formation. This research is important because it will clarify the issues seen by Native Americans in attributing identity as tribal members. In a society where the national government insists on clear criteria for inclusion into Native populations, but where the lived history and genealogy of individuals is extremely diverse, the advance in understanding of how different types of people use racial and ethnic attributions will be valuable information for understanding how and why people react to policies.
