Layered Indigenous Identity: The Persistence of Navajo Life in Modern Conditions

• In Event: The (Im)possibility of (Re)Indigenization: Indigenous Futurities Beyond Settler Structures

Abstract

Issues of cultural identity among Indigenous peoples in the United States have received sustained scholarly attention. Yet sociological analyses of Indigenous identity often remain theoretically thin, relying primarily on structural explanations that understate the interpretive dimensions of lived experience. This paper argues that William James’s theory of the self offers an underexamined yet analytically powerful framework for interpreting Indigenous identity formation in modern conditions. Using hermeneutics as a method, identity is approached as lived, meaning-centered, and interpretive rather than as a fixed structural position. As an Indigenous scholar, my analysis is informed by situated knowledge and reflexive engagement with the social worlds under examination. This standpoint does not substitute for a theoretical foundation; rather, it grounds hermeneutic interpretation in lived social experience as a legitimate site of sociological insight. James’s distinction between the material, social, and spiritual selves offers a conceptual framework for analyzing Indigenous identity as layered and reflexive. The self is rooted in relations to land and place (material self), recognition across multiple social worlds (social self), and enduring spiritual orientation (spiritual self). Centering this layered conception shifts the analysis toward identity as an ongoing negotiation across multiple institutional settings, such as education, religion, family life, and law. The empirical focus is the Navajo Nation, the largest federally recognized tribe in the United States. Identity is examined through two ideal-typical identification markers: the “traditional native” and the “city native” (urban native). Through a Jamesian hermeneutic interpretation, these positions reflect varied expressions of the layered self under modern conditions. Indigenous identity is active and reflexive. Under ongoing pressures of assimilation, Indigenous identity persists through adaptation within modern institutional life. Modern institutions do not erase Indigenous identity; they reshape the conditions under which they persist.

Author

• Rhiannon Dawn Powers, Texas A&M University