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On the Costs of Being American Indian: Ethnic Identity and Economic Opportunity
C. Matthew Snipp, University of Maryland - College Park
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ABSTRACT: This paper examines the assimilation of American Indians, specifically
in relation to the role that economic discrimination has played in making
American Indians one of the poorest groups in American society. The
relationship between assimilation and discrimination is particularly
important in this context. As assimilation increases, discrimination should
decrease and the economic position of the assimilated group, American Indians,
should improve. Conversely, those groups least assimilated into American
society bear the brunt of racial and ethnic discrimination, and
their economic position should be correspondingly lower than more
assimilated minorities.
American Indians are a particularly interesting group among whom to
examine these ideas. This is because it is possible to identify, in
empirical data,distinct groups of persons with American Indian background
that are more or less assimilated into American society. In studying the
ways in which assimilation and discrimination affect the economic standing
of American Indians, this research will address two closely related
questions: 1) to what extent are American Indians assimilated into
mainstream culture, and to what extent are different levels of assimilation
manifest in different types of American Indian ethnic identities; and 2)
what are the economic "penalties" assessed on persons who decline to
assimilate into the mainstream culture?
SUGGESTED CITATION:
C. Matthew Snipp,
"On the Costs of Being American Indian: Ethnic Identity and Economic Opportunity"
(June 1, 1988).
Institute for Social Science Research.
Volume IV. 1988-89 - Conference on Comparative Ethnicity: The Conference Papers, June 1988.
Paper 25.
http://repositories.cdlib.org/issr/volume4/25
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