Year of Award

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Name

Anthropology (Cultural Heritage and Applied Anthropology Option)

Department or School/College

Department of Anthropology

Committee Chair

Neyooxet Greymorning

Commitee Members

Anna Prentiss, Gregory R. Campbell, Abhishek Chatterjee, Ronald Yonaguska Holloway, Raymond L. Watson

Keywords

Applied Anthropology, Cultural Heritage, International Relations, Legal Semiotics, Peircean Semiotics, Political Ontology

Abstract

This dissertation studies the concept of self-determination related to a confederation known as the Federation of Aboriginal Nations of the Americas. It addresses three main questions: How does FANA represent an institution of legal cooperation? In what ways does cultural capital become reproduced? And what are key principles for the Federations’ code of unity? Self-determination is a core principle of international law and may be identified through treaties and social conventions like Wunnandry. The study explores an interdisciplinary approach to American Indian selfdetermination through a focus on applied anthropology, cultural heritage, and Peircean legal semiotics to problematize some historical approaches of political anthropology. Participatory Action Research is the primary method as this study exemplifies complexities associated with enforcing a balance between traditional socio-political expressions, Western legal systems, and certain evolutions among the Federations’ normative order. The creation of the United States influenced the establishment of politico-legal sign-forms that manifest through select treaties, U.S. Constitutional precedents, and federal codes. Accordingly, diverse legal relationships emerged from different, and context dependent, levels of intergovernmental hybridity whereby emic and etic relationships can impact agency, authority, and legitimacy to different degrees among tribal nations. Today, many tribal nationals are legally dual-citizens between their respective tribes and the United States. I argue that an interdisciplinary approach of this nature is useful to better understand how FANA exercises their dual-national statuses. Power relations are a key site in the process of understanding the effect of the Federation’s agency through interactions that emerge from rule-governed and rulechanging creative processes. I argue that such processes are not confined to etic federal mandates often associated with the federal acknowledgement relationship. The Federation became established in 2015 by efforts from three Eastern Woodlands tribal bodies. I have observed a significant growth in their capacities related to international relations, the nonprofit sector, and strategies for intercultural exchange. The study finds the Federation’s navigation of the standardization of American Indian political organization reveals a ‘third space’ of legal agency that bypasses normative federal recognition hurdles.

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© Copyright 2026 Kevin T. Inglesby