Mikaëla Adams’s Who Belongs? explores the process of defining—and often redefining—tribal citizenship among “scattered Indians who remained in the South” following Indian Removal without a relationship with the federal government (9). The book includes six case studies to highlight this process at the local level. The featured tribes include the Pamunkey Tribe of Virginia, the Catawba Nation of South Carolina, the Mississippi Band of Choctaws, the Eastern Band of Cherokees Indians, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida from removal to the present.
Adams makes three consistent arguments to connect the experiences of these six disparate communities. First, she demonstrates that the ability to determine citizenship is a critical component of tribal sovereignty and self-determination. Tribal land and resources, whether considerable or minuscule, lured outsiders to attempt to gain citizenship for personal gain. Thus, each tribe actively defined and regulated qualifications for citizenship as a defensive...
