Skip to main content
NATIVE BUT FOREIGN
Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands by Brenden W. Rensink, Texas A&M Press, 2018

Chapter 10, Note 64 (pages 213 and 276)

In the interlude, Spicer and the PYA pushed the recognition campaign along different lines, testifying before the American Indian Policy Review Commission’s hearing on unrecognized and terminated tribes. During this process, Spicer’s extensive research honed and strengthened the cause’s arguments for federal recognition. (p. 213)

Chapter 10, Note 64 . . . for information and sources on Spicer’s testimony. (p. 276)

The invitation to testify before Task Force #10 on Terminated and Nonfederally Recognized Indians was for May 22, 1976. Jo Jo Hunt (AIPRC Task Force #10 Chairwoman) to Pascua Yaqui Association, undated, Spicer Papers, ASM, Subgroup 6, Box 1, Folder 8. . The AIPRC provided extensive instruction on information groups should use in their support. These instructions sent Spicer digging for new historical data on Yaqui in the United States. Subsequent efforts to gather oral histories and tribal histories from Yaqui elders further bolstered the PYA’s growing portfolio of academic (historical, anthropologic and archaeological) support. One of the most valuable of these came from Felipe Molina. Spicer’s new findings of late 18th and early 19th century Yaqui activities in the United States prior to were sent to the PYA for the hearings, and forwarded to Udall’s office as well.

Sources:

  • Felipe Molina, Oral History Interview, 1977-1981, ASHS, AV 0360 20
  • Felipe Molina to Edward Spicer, “Yaqui Historical Chart,” 1980, Spicer Papers, ASM, Subgroup 8, Box 5, Folder 278. 
  • Edward Spicer to Raymond Ybarra, September 26, 1976, and Raymond Ybarra to Roger Lewis, September 28, 1976, Udall Papers, UASC, Subgroup 3, Series 1, Box 606, Folder 16.
  • Mark Edwin Miller, Forgotten Tribes: Unrecognized Indians and the Federal Acknowledgment Process (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006), 111-114.