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Kabila

How a people gains official recognition

The usual stages by which a state formally accepts a group as a tribe or indigenous people, shown through the United States and India.

if acceptedCommunity organisesEvidence gatheredClaim submittedOfficial reviewFormal decisionAdded to the listRights take effect

  1. Community organises. A people exists whether or not a state recognises it. Recognition is a legal status. In the United States a tribe writes a petition. In India a community asks its state government to take up its case.
  2. Evidence gathered. A United States petitioner must show, among other things, that it has been identified as an American Indian entity since 1900 and has lived as a distinct community with its own political authority.
  3. Claim submitted. The United States petition goes to the Office of Federal Acknowledgment in the Department of the Interior. In India the state government sends a proposal to the central Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
  4. Official review. In the United States, historians, anthropologists and genealogists examine the file. In India the Registrar General and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes are asked for their views.
  5. Formal decision. The United States Department of the Interior issues a final determination. Congress can also recognise a tribe by law. In India, Parliament must pass a law to change the list.
  6. Added to the list. A recognised tribe joins the list published in the United States Federal Register. In India the community is added to the Scheduled Tribes order for its state under Article 342 of the Constitution.
  7. Rights take effect. In the United States, recognition creates a government-to-government relationship and access to federal services. In India it brings reserved seats, places in education and public jobs, and legal safeguards.

Read the lesson

  1. Recognition around the worldEach country has its own way of deciding which peoples it recognises and what follows from that. You will tour six systems and learn what recognition gives and what it leaves out.

Seven peoples, once a week

Every Monday: seven peoples you may never have heard of, who they are and where they live.