The Monica Bird

Librarian Docs: Headings for Indian Tribes Recognized by the U.S. Government

junk-pile:

libraryjournal:

gov-info:

The Policy and Standards Division has determined that names of Indian tribes recognized by the U.S. government as legal entities will henceforth be tagged 151 (Geographic name) in name authority records rather than 110 (Corporate name), as they were previously tagged. This change in status of headings for tribal entities to 151 (Geographic name) will enable these headings to be used as jurisdictions when needed in cataloging. When a heading of this type is used to represent a government (110) the MARC 21 indicator will be set to “1” to reflect that this entity is acting as the name of a jurisdiction. These headings may also be used as geographic subdivisions, subdivided directly. This is in keeping with the guidance provided in rule 21.35 of theAnglo-American Cataloguing Rules2nd edition (AACR2) in regard to treating tribal entities as national governments.

By authority of the U.S. government, a growing number of tribal entities have been formally recognized and are federally acknowledged to have immunities and privileges by virtue of their government-to-government relationship with the United States as well as powers, limitations, responsibilities, and obligations attributed to such tribes. This means that tribes recognized by the U.S. government are independent, autonomous political entities with inherent powers of self- government; they possess sovereignty and are equivalent to national governments. To date, there are over 500 recognized tribes within the continental United States alone. Virtually all federally recognized tribes have jurisdiction over some delimited area of land, a geographic place, although land and area vary with each tribe.

Library racism.

I think moving American Indian tribes under geographic headings makes a lot more sense than keeping them under “corporate entities,” considering that they don’t function at all like corporations. They govern themselves apart from whatever local government is nearby, acting more like individual countries. I don’t really see how the LC’s move is racist.

Nah! What I meant was that it has taken the LoC this long to officially recognize the sovereignty of native tribes speaks to centuries of institutionalized racism. So in sum, the move is a good one, but overdue and reflective of some of the LoC’s longstanding problems.