Delaware identity in a Cherokee nation: An ethnography of power.

Abstract

The unequal relationship explored here can also provide a perspective for the anthropological study of power and why it appears that people participate in their own domination. Michel Foucault understands power to exist in the ability to guide the rules for political and economic participation in such a way as to make it appear that those in subordinate positions consent to the existing inequalities. I agree with Foucault's position on power and I extend his argument to demonstrate that cultural beliefs play an important role in the creation and re-creation of power structures.

The Cherokee Nation identifies the Delaware as Cherokee even though the Delaware are not historically or linguistically related to the Cherokee nor do they consider themselves to be Cherokee. I explain that the Cherokee Nation wants to control how the Delaware identify with the federal government to legitimize their economic and political power over the Delaware. The Cherokee Nation maintains their powerful position primarily because they manipulate the Delaware political structure and unique cultural beliefs about conflict to make it appear that the Delaware consent to a Cherokee identity.