Questions Regarding American Indian Criminality

Abstract

For purposes of this paper, American Indian means a social-legal, not a biological, group. This specification is necessary because many of the people enjoying legal privileges of American Indians are, in fact, biologically part Negro or part Caucasian. The extremely large portion of individuals with mixed ancestry among the Indians indicates that hereditary racial factors are too complex to explain Indian behavior. Although American Indians were originally all classified anthropometrically as Mongoloid, centuries of miscegenation have produced a genetically mixed population. Notwithstanding their biological hybridization, about 524,000 individuals were classified as Indian on the 1960 United States Census. The practical advantages of being listed officially on tribal rolls are such that nearly all who can qualify are anxious to maintain their legal status as Indian.