> How do the folks in Indian Affairs define the DC of the
 > United States?
Short answer: the Euro-American is the dominant culture. But that is slowly 
changing. What happens soon after the turn of the
century when the Asian American - or the Hispanic American - or
the Black American becomes the DC in some parts of the nation?
I doubt it will be a change occurring without severe problems!
Though I am part native Hawaiian and not Indian, I think I have been around 
this echo long enough to offer a plausible answer to that
question when I keep in mind it very much applies to the native
Hawaiian as well.
The native American is a minority in his/her own homeland. Thus,
they are not a part of the dominant culture. The Euro-American seems to be 
the dominant culture in the United States. Taking that concept a bit further, 
especially in some areas, the native American is the domiNATED culture, if 
only by (forced) assimilation. Problem, though, is that many have not been 
assimilated as totally as some might wish them to be; they remain native 
Americans and justly proud of their special heritage. This puts them at odds 
with the DC, doesn't it? Many of those same native Americans participate in 
this forum. I have learned a lot from them in a fashion I like the most. You 
can't read some of these views in your local (or national) news.
Native Americans do not have an equal say in a one-person, one-vote society. 
In many areas, when voting on native isues, the DC will vote against the 
interests of the native Americans to hold on to illegal gains in a fashion 
twisted and legislated to seem "legal", i.e., by the "democratic" vote - of 
the dominant culture rather than by the vote of the natives of the land.
The dominant culture of the United States has a rather lopsided and distorted 
view of native Americans for many reasons. Problems abound since the dominant 
culture has been educated about native Americans by myths, distortions and 
even deliberate lies penned by historians who wrote historical accounts of 
native Americans with the smugness and hubris of Manifest Destiny uppermost.
Some in the dominant culture also suffer from some sort of misplaced guilt 
over living on land stolen from people at gunpoint. This alone makes for some 
very strong feelings - but still, the DC will do nothing substantial to make 
things right unless it obviously has no choice but to do so.
Because of that, the interest of the DC often totally ignores the native 
American, and as a result, the native American still suffers. The antive 
American, like the native Hawaiian in Hawai`i, will never again be the 
dominant culture. But they will always be the rightful heirs of the U.S. 
Mainland and Hawai`i.
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