ABSTRACT
The United Nations addresses indigeneity through the concepts of territory, customs, traditions, culture, language, subordination, superordination, identity, and acceptance within and by a bounded population. These provisional axiom constructs provide the same footing for the theoretical concept of citizenship. For Indigenous communities, citizenship calls into being individualism, a garnished identity, thus casting the die anew. Today, tribal governments engage in a citizenship dialog with the dominant society addressing the contradictory situation created by the notion that tribal citizens/members are also U.S. citizens and residents; “citizenship-within-citizenship” and both extended certain rights and privileges, thus creating a unique and indeed many times contradicting legal status for Indians as sovereign and as citizens of the United States.
