Recognizing Our Past and Moving Toward Our Future: Decolonizing Attitudes About Skin Color and Native Americans

ExcerptThe label Native American covers a broad range of peoples including more that 560 federally recognized tribes within the boundaries of the United States (US Department of the Interior, Indian Affairs, 2014). While Native Americans remain a small fraction of the population, their numbers are growing. According to the 2010 Census, there are 5.2 million Native Americans accounting for 1.7% of the US population (Norris, Vines, & Hoeffel, 2012). Native Americans are diverse peoples with many different languages, cultures, forms of governance, and spiritual traditions. In spite of this extensive diversity, there are societal assumptions that Native Americans are a monolithic group with significant commonalities. These assumptions include an expectation, often based on stereotypes, that Native Americans share certain commonalities related to appearance; in particular skin color, hair texture, and phenotypical features