Richard W. Stoffle

Native American Urbanization and Socio-Economic Integration in the Southwestern United States

Comparison of settlement patterns on the San Carlos, Ft. Apache, Cocopah, Walapai, Havasupai and Kaibab Paiute Indian reservations reveals that lumbering, cattle husbandy and other business not only federal payrolls generate agency town nucleation and growth. The timing of federal protection of natural resources for Indian entrepreneurs to exploit has proved to be a crucial factor in urbanization. The formation of modern nations has involved varying degrees of political, social and economic integration of different, once autonomous ethnic groups. The United States obtained citizens by attracting voluntary immigrants from Europe, by granting citizenship to involuntary immigrants from Africa and their descendants in mid-nineteenth century, and by bestowing citizenship in 1924 upon surviving Native Americans conquered and enclaved on lands reserved for them. Granting them U.S. citizenship did not, however, in itself integrate Native Americans into the national economy and society. Such integration results from numerous mechanisms of cultural change. At the same time that the United States pursued a policy of domestic colonialism toward Native American peoples, it transformed itself from a rural farming country into an urban industrial nation. One measure of Native American socio-economic integration is, therefore, the degree of concurrent urbanization of this portion of the population. The 1960 and 1970 censuses show that Native American population has been rapidly urbanizing only at this relatively late period in United States history. The major process of Native American urbanization has been internal reservation-to-city migration. This recent migratory current raised the urban portion of the Native American populace from 27.8 percent in 1960 to 44.9 percent in 1970 (Wax 1971:37; U.S. Bureau of the Census 1972:281). Twenty-five U.S. cities in 155 ETHNOHISTORY 22/2 (Spring 1975) This content downloaded from 207.46.13.118 on Sun, 11 Sep 2016 06:01:49 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 156 HENRY F. DOBYNS, RICHARD W. STOFFLE, and KRISTINE JONES OREGON IDAHO * IDAHO FALLS

WHITHER THE COUNTRY STORE

Although in many parts of the nation there has been a strong trend toward centralization of institutional services in single centers away from rural areas, churches and country stores have managed to survive in the countryside. The history of country stores in a single Kentucky county is examined in an attempt to explain their survival. It is suggested that the country store is an adaptive economic institution, one which continues to exist because of credit. convenience, sociability and economic viability. Fescue County, Kentucky is a classic example of institutional centralization processes. In the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries county, state, and national governments attempted to improve rural country life by making county seat institutions available to small town and farm dwellers. This was a period of institutional expansion when the schools, banks, churches, and various small industries were constructed in small towns around the county. This process, however, was not to continue, and around the 1930s these various institutions contracted with increasing rapidity back into the county seat. Accompanying this centralization were improvements in roads, diffusion of cars and trucks, and development of highly competitive incorporated businesses. Today Fescue County is almost completely centralized not only in terms of its major institutions but also with respect to rural country reference groups. The county seat is where the action is. There are, however, two traditional institutions which have partially resisted this centralization process. These are the country general store and the country church. Through in-depth interviews of country store owners, historical literature, governmental statistics, and actual field surveys. this paper documents the changes in form and function which have facilitated the continuation of the country general store.

The Skimmer: An Analysis of Continuations and Modifications of a Traditional American Activity

A farm family living on Briar Ridge in Kentucky occasionally makes sorghum molasses in spite of the work and expense involved and in spite of the fact that this activity is no longer economically viable. The process of making sorghum molasses is described and the reasons for the familys efforts are analyzed in terms of manifest and latent functions.