Doctoral Dissertation Research: Cultures of Sovereignty and Fiscal Order

Cornell University, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

Because American Indian nations are not subject to state and local jurisdiction, they also are not subject to municipal property tax codes. In addition, the businesses that they own on sovereign territory are exempt from sales and excise taxes. Residents in non-native communities that surround Indian reservations and other sovereign holdings may find this cause for grievance. Understanding the historic and modern-day circumstances that have brought about these uneasy relationships is important for mitigating conflict. It is also an excellent lens through which to understand the changing meanings of sovereignty, citizenship, and cultural identity in a modern nation state, as they develop through the institution of taxation. Cornell University graduate student, Emily Levitt, under the supervision of Dr. Paul Nadasdy, will undertake an anthropological case study of the fiscal relations between an Indian nation, their neighbors, and multiple levels of government. The research will be conducted in the upstate New York town of Seneca Falls where the Cayuga Indian Nation has bought land, declared it sovereign territory, established businesses, and claimed tax exemption, thereby provoking both their neighbors and governmental authorities. Because this is an emerging situation that can be well documented as it develops, it is an ideal site to investigate how and why such situations come about and the responses they engender. The investigator will employ a mix of social science research methods, including: participant observation, attendance at public meetings, semi-structured interviews with all stakeholders, archival research, and media content analysis. These data will allow the investigator to understand how taxation affects understandings of who belongs and who does not, as well as the role that fiscal relations play in both Native American and majority culture understandings of themselves and their relationships with others both as individuals and as members of a nation.