Arlinda Locklear, Esq. 
Member, Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina
Attorney at Law
Jefferson, Maryland

My Position

First, I think that it is important to give a little background because my background reveals one of the present-day tensions in Indian country, and of course my biases will reflect that background. I am a member of the Lumbee Tribe from North Carolina, the largest non-federally recognized tribe in the country. And in Indian country, federally recognized tribes as opposed to non-federally recognized tribes is an important distinction. Basically it means that the federal government has established a political relationship with a tribe that is federally recognized, very similar to recognition of a foreign government. It is the establishment of a government-to-government relationship for the conduct of diplomatic relations with that particular Indian tribe. And that reflects the status of Indian tribes as self-governing peoples under our system of federal government.

Federal recognition is primarily serendipitous. It occurred because of particular circumstances that required the federal government to deal with a particular tribe: either it wanted that tribe's land, or it had to negotiate peace with that tribe, or something else, and federal recognition was a secondary incident to that. Many of the tribes that are not federally recognized are located on the [U.S.] East Coast. Many of those tribes had already lost all of their land and had been pacified long before the United States was formed, so that there was never any need for the United States to deal with that tribe, and hence the United States has just ignored it.

Tribes like mine exist because of the will of the people to continue to exist as a separate people, as a separate culture, rather than because they've had external support from the federal government.

Why I Became a Lawyer

I got into Indian affairs because of things that I saw. I decided that if I became a lawyer, that would give me the vehicle for doing something to help my people in particular. I saw a lot of things that were wrong, ranging from race discrimination to the inability of our people as a group to control their own destiny, that made me decide I wanted to be a lawyer because I thought that was the best way I could help. I graduated from law school in 1976, and since then I have been doing nothing but Indian affairs and working for my own tribe, usually without pay. There have been times when certain organizations within the tribe have paid me, but my other work--my paying clients--allow me to continue to do the work that I'd like to do for my own tribe. So that's why I got into the business and that colors my perspective on the business.

My People's Future

In terms of "where do we go from here," I think we are at a point in the history of relations between Indians and non-Indians where it's time for Indian people to take stock of where we stand in terms of our own seriousness about self-governance and self-determination--and our ability to make it work. If you look at the last one hundred years of history in particular, you'll see ebbs and flows of tribal self-governing power and support for tribal self-governance by the federal government. It tends to go back and forth over high and low points every twenty, twenty-five years or so, and right now we are at a high point.

But pressures are building, I think, within the dominant society that are going to begin to push it [the high point] down very soon. The popularity of gaming in Indian country has had a lot to do with that. There are a lot of reasons for it, I think, but all of those things together make me believe that it is time for Indian people to think about what they are going to do as a people with their own form of government and with respect for their own people to maintain and hold on to the power of self-government they have.

There is nothing at all in the Constitution that guarantees tribes the power of self-government. In fact, the United States Congress can take it away through legislation. It has limited it severely through legislation and no doubt will limit it further through legislation. But, the tribes' ability in the long run to hang on to what's left, I think, depends upon their own sense of responsibility and their willingness to actually act like governments in the modern world.

A Recipe for Survival

There is a tension that runs through Indian country right now between traditional and so-called non-traditional governments in ways of doing business. But the fact of the matter is you have to have both strains operating at the same time for tribes to survive in the long run, I think. Internally, you need to be sensitive about your people's traditions, but externally you need to have people who are capable and equipped to deal with the outside world. And as the outside world becomes more sophisticated, so those people who manage those relations for Indian tribes need to become more sophisticated. I think that we are learning that, but when you get a bunch of Indians together, one of the things we all acknowledge among ourselves--although unfortunately not to the outside world--is that we do have a ways to go internally in terms of exercising self-government with respect for our own people.

The Congress had to force the adoption of civil rights as against tribal governments through the passage of the Indian Civil Rights Act. And a lot of tribes resented that. The Congress still has not forced tribes to waive their sovereign immunity so that their own members can sue them in their own courts, but I think that will happen one day unless tribes begin to be more respectful toward their own people and more responsible in the exercise of powers of self-government.

Tribal government institutions need to be treated as institutions and not as personal power bases for individual Indian leaders. And Indian leaders need to assume responsibility for a lot that happens and does not happen in Indian country, instead of simply blaming the dominant society. We've been doing that for a long time, and there is a lot of truth to that, but there is also a lot of truth to the reality that there are things we have failed to do ourselves. And I think at the end of the day, our long-term ability to survive and thrive as distinct cultures and people will depend on that.

Why Do Indians Live in "Those" Places?

I routinely encounter people who look at you with this complete uncomprehending stare and say: "Why do Indians want to live in these places? Why don't they just move to Detroit and get a job? I don't understand." Trying to make them understand in a five-minute conversation is difficult. It's always discouraging to me how many people are out there who still don't understand why anybody would not just want to blend, and what strength there is in the Indian community, even though there is also poverty and everything else. I haven't seen any decline in that. It is still everywhere you go, you know. But then other than my own kids and kids their age (my son just starts high school this coming year), I don't see people who have been influenced by the multiculturalism that's been in the schools for the last ten years or so. These are mostly older people who are reflecting an older attitude who say, "We just don't understand why Indians want to stay in these places. My God, why don't they just leave Pine Ridge [South Dakota] and go somewhere else?" They don't understand the strength of family ties and support that you get in that kind of context.