The Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen Nation of Monterey, California: Dispossession, Federal Neglect, and the Bitter Irony of the Federal Acknowledgment Process
T s article presents a sketch of the Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen Nation of Monterey County, California, focusing on the making of the tribe's federally unacknowledged status. Consisting of over four hundred fifty enrolled members, the Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen Nation (hereafter OCEN, Esselen Nation, or Esselen) is currently petitioning to clarify its status as an American Indian tribe through the federal acknowledgment process (FAP) administered by the Branch of Acknowledgment and Research (BAR), Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). A history of junctures between federal action and acknowledgment of this community and instances of governmental neglect fostered the dispossession of tribal lands. I begin by briefly exploring the effects of Spanish colonization and missionization on the initial treatment of this tribal community by the federal government after American occupation. I argue that coastal, missionized Indians were overlooked during a period of treaty making in the 1850s as they were deemed already "domesticated," due in large part to their incorporation into the ~ 41 dominant economic order. I end by discussing the implication of this history for the Esselen Nation's struggle for federal acknowledgment and for the federal acknowledgment process. Simply put, the FAP criteria of sociocultural and political persistence and external recognition do not account for 230 years of state-sponsored violence, crass federal neglect, expropriation, and assimilationist policies.
Changes in the land : Indians, colonists, and the ecology of New England
Thirtyve years ago William Cronon wrote Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. It has aged well. The continued relevance of the book is likely a result of two things. First, it is eminently readable. Flipping through the pages, one can imagine the forests that Cronon describes and feel his connection to them. Second, the problem he poses about the limits of disciplinary work in writing the history of environmental change are more poignant now than ever before, as humanists across disciplines attempt to write to current concerns about climate change and the relationship between humans and nature. Cronon argues that the cultural and ecological consequences of colonization are deeply connected. As such, they demand the tools of both a historian and an ecologist. He traces the process by which Indigenous communities and European communities made meaning of the environment to the ecological changes that resulted from the in ux of a new culture. His book is not meant to suggest a single material cause of con ict, but looks at how cultural histories of diverse issues – such as land acquisition, the development of capitalist economies, the growth of towns, and the fur trade – can bene t from studying the relationship between human action and ecological consequence.
BOOK REVIEW …
The abrupt end of colonial rule in the Congo marked a major turning point in the history of decolonization. Academic and popular discussion has blamed the brutality of the Congolese civil war in the 1960s in part on the unwillingness of Belgian authorities to formulate a plan to surrender authority to the Africans. The formation of a Congolese elite in the late colonial period certainly drew the attention of scholars in the 1960s, but relatively few have examined this topic in later decades. The Lumumba Generation by Daniel Tödt is a new consideration of the convoluted negotiations between Congolese seeking preferential treatment with Belgian officials by claiming to promote assimilation to European norms of behavior. Tödt skillfully draws together a wide range of secondary literature, particularly regarding the formation and negotiated definitions of belonging within a loosely constituted middle class. He also examines the interplay between class identity, the state, and the role of law in Belgium and the Congo. The formation of an elite in the Congo highlighted the contradictions of colonial rule. Especially after World War 2, Belgian authorities wanted to showcase a growing middle-class African community that was Christian, dressed and lived along European lines, and was still loyal to European domination. This group was overwhelmingly male, even as a few women did also manage to receive state confirmation of their assimilated status. Although officials mocked the alleged snobbishness of the bourgeois Congolese, they also tried to monitor middle-class Congolese behavior. Some of the most fascinating reading in The Lumumba Generation is the rich collection of details about everyday life documented by officials determined to set firm lines between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Administrators did not want this group to gain political power and push aside the Belgians. Self-identified members of this group of new bourgeoisie demanded more political rights for themselves on the grounds that they had met the vague criteria set out by colonial officials. Much as in other colonies,