ABSTRACT
Native American people are in the process of identifying or re-identifying features that distinguish them as individuals and in relationship to others. In doing so they are tied to elements of history, property, and identity. The plaintiffs in the land claim suits, however, had found a way to gain some power. Based on the Non-Intercourse Act of 1790, legislation that declared that alienation of Indian lands could be legally accomplished only with permission of Congress, and with direct intervention from then President Jimmy Carter, the Maine tribes had reclaimed some of their land. William Sturtevant, of the Smithsonian Institution, provided additional general concepts from the witness stand. The injustice is that compromises the Mashpee were forced to make to keep from being engulfed were seen as abandonment of culture by an unsympathetic jury. From the Mashpee trial have come certain features of tribal identity: race, territory, community, leadership, and documentation.
