The Integration of Americans of Indian Descent

• Author: J. Milton Yinger,George Eaton Simpson
• DOI: 10.1177/000271627843600113
• Published date: 01 March 1978
• Date: 01 March 1978
• Subject Matter: Articles

The Integration of Americans of Indian Descent
By J. MILTON YINGER AND GEORGE EATON SIMPSON
ABSTRACT: When the members of two societies come into
contact, changes in the direction of assimilation may occur
on four different levels—biological, psychological, cultural,
and structural, or, in more descriptive terms, amalgamation,
identification, acculturation, and integration may take place.
At present, most Indians favor integration but resist forced
acculturation. The integration and cultural assimilation of Na-
tive Americans have been
inhibited by a number of funda-
mental differences between the majority culture and the cul-
tures of Indian peoples. At the same time, other factors have
furthered integration and cultural assimilation. Migration,
urbanization, education, economic changes, and intermar-
riage will facilitate structural integration, a shared identity,
and cultural assimilation. In time, full assimilation, or the
interaction of all persons without reference to ethnic or racial
descent, may come about. For the immediate future, however,
pluralism, associated with increasing acculturation and struc-
tural integration, seems to be the most likely pattern of rela-
tionship between most Indians and non-Indians.
J. Milton Yinger is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Oberlin College.
Among his publications are Toward a Field Theory of Behavior, The Scientific Study
of Religion, and most recently, Middle Start: An Experiment in the Educational
Enrichment of Young Adolescents (with Kiyoshi Ikeda, Frank Laycock, and Stephen
Cutler). With George E. Simpson, he edited an earlier volume of THE ANNALS on
American Indians (May 1957); and together they have written Racial and Cultural
Minorities, now in its fourth edition. Professor Yinger recently served as President
of the American Sociological Association.
George Eaton Simpson is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at
Oberlin College. He is the author of Melville J. Herskovits (1973); Religious Cults
of the Caribbean (1970); and Racial and Cultural Minorities (with J. Milton Yinger),
which won the Anisfield-Wolf Award in Race Relations in 1958.
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138
D ESPITE decades of scholarly the following question suggests:
work, the concepts of integra-
What proportion of one’s ancestry
tion, acculturation, assimilation, and
can
be non-Indian and still allow one
related terms are used in a variety
to retain the designation Indian?
of ways. And lacking clear defini-
This is an issue wherever biological
tions of these basic intergroup proc-
mixture has occurred, and the an-
esses, we cannot attain reliable
swer varies widely. Some persons
measurement of them. In this paper
with three Indian grandparents and
we cannot hope to resolve these
one white regard themselves, and
problems of definition and measure-
are regarded by others, as white.
ment ; but we would like to suggest
Other persons with one Indian
a mode
of approach that may take us
grandparent are Indian.
toward a solution and help us to clar-
It is also important, in discussing
ify the situation of American Indians.
amalgamation, to distinguish be-
tween two modes of measurement:
FOUR BASIC INTERGROUP
the proportion of individuals who
PROCESSES
have mixed ancestry and the propor-
tion of the gene pool that is derived
When the members of two socie-
from the various stocks. Thus it is
ties come into contact, changes in
one
thing to say that about 80 percent
the direction of assimilation-the
of black Americans have European
blending of formerly distinguisha-
ancestors; it is something else to say
ble sociocultural groups’-may oc-
that about 30 percent of their ances-
cur on four different levels: biologi-
try-viewing them as a group-is
cal, psychological, cultural, and
European. Similar figures are more
structural. Or, to use more descrip-
difficult to estimate for Indians,
tive terms, amalgamation, identifica-
since it is likely that a larger propor-
tion, acculturation, and integration
tion has passed over into the general
may take place. These processes are
society, even some persons with
strongly interconnected, but be-
very little or no non-Indian ancestry.
cause they can proceed at different
With respect to some particular
speeds and in different mixtures, we
group of native Americans, it would
need to keep them analytically dis-
be possible to say, for example, that
tinct in our minds. Each is a vari-
40 percent of them had some Euro-
able, of course, but lacking clearly
pean ancestors and that 30 percent
specified units and techniques of
of their gene pool was European
measurement, we tend to speak of
(which would be the case if all those
more or less, or in terms of broad
of mixed ancestry were one-quarter
categories.
Indian).
Amalgamation, defined in strictly
One other aspect of amalgamation
biological terms, is doubtless the
deserves comment. It is often stated
least ambiguous of the concepts. An
that amalgamation occurs late in a
exclusively biological approach proves
succession of intergroup processes.2
2
to be an inadequate index to assimi-
lation or integration, however, when
2. Prodipto
social factors become
Roy, "The Measurement of As-
involved, as
similation : The Spokane Indians," American
Journal of Sociology 67 (March 1962), pp.
1. George E. Simpson, "Assimilation," in
541-51; Lynn C. White and Bruce A. Chad-
International Encyclopedia of the Social Sci-
wick, "Urban Residence, Assimilation, and
ences (New York: Macmillan and The Free
Identity of the Spokane Indian," in Native
Press, 1968), vol. I, p. 438.
Americans Today: Sociological Perspectives,

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139
This may or may not be true, and
become chiefs.4 And at least a few
the timing both reflects and affects
persons of European and of Indian
the nature of intergroup relations. If
background (as well as some of Asian
two groups are quite unequal in
and African ancestry) identify them-
power and status, amalgamation, as
selves with a new society that is
a result of sexual exploitation, tends
neither A nor B, but the product of
to occur in the early period of con-
interaction among persons and cul-
tact. The rate of amalgamation may
tures of many types.
decline during a second period,
If we think of acculturation as
even though acculturation contin-
&dquo;... the process of cultural change
ues. At
a still later stage, if inequality
resulting from intercultural con-
and prejudice are reduced, intermar-
tact,&dquo;5 it is clearly a two-way process.
riage may become more common. It
It has been difficult to arrive at a
is estimated that now about one In-
widely agreed upon definition in
dian in three marries a non-Indian.3
part because of a failure to distin-
The psychological process of iden-
guish between individual and group
tification refers to a set of related
referents. It is one thing, for exam-
concepts: the degree to which indi-
ple, to say that some individual
viduals from groups A and B have
white persons have absorbed vari-
come to think of themselves as be-
ous Indian values, perhaps thinking
longing to the same society-as
of themselves, and being thought of,
many
immigrants and their descend-
as somewhat deviant as a result. It
ants think of themselves as Ameri-
is something else for the dominant
cans ; the degree to which members
society to absorb various Indian val-
of A identify themselves with society
ues as paint of its normative system,
B; and the degree to which members
teaching them to its young through
ofB identify with society A. All three
normal processes of socialization.
of these processes may go on at the
And of course the same distinction
same time; and the nature of their
between individual and group proc-
mixture is a significant aspect of the
esses can be applied to Indians. If
relationship between A and B. Some
both processes are called accultura-
Americans of Indian ancestry iden-
tion, it is important to distinguish
tify themselves simply as Ameri-
them conceptually, because their
cans. This is correlated with the de-
causes and
effects are quite different.
gree of acculturation and mixed an-
Acculturation has been difficult to
cestry, but is analytically separate
define and analyze also because it is
from them: many substantially ac-
empirically mixed in various ways
culturated persons of mixed back-
with the degree of amalgamation,
ground identify themselves entirely
identification, and integration. Un-
as Indians. Throughout American
doubtedly these processes are corre-
history, a few white persons have
lated, often highly correlated, but
identified themselves as Indians,
have lived in tribal villages, married
4. A. Irving Hallowell, "American Indians,
Indian spouses, and have sometimes
White and Black: The Phenomenon of Trans-
culturalization, Current Anthropology 4 (De-
cember 1963), pp. 510-31; J. Norman Heard,
eds. Howard M. Bahr, Bruce A. Chadwick,
White into Red: A Study of the Assimilation
and Robert C. Day (New York: Harper & Row,
of White Persons Captured by Indians
1972), p. 240.
(Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1973).
3. E. J. Kahn, Jr., The American People
5. Bahr, Chadwick, Day, eds.,
Native
Amer-
(Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1973), p. 207.
icans Today, p. 193.

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140
one
can occur
without the others, the
we shall call pluralism, exists to the
pace may
be quite different, and the
degree that A and B as groups are
sequence can vary. With regard to
accorded the same rights and public
the last point, acculturation is often
privileges, the same access to politi-
regarded as an early...