Was a Amerindian State ever plausible?

Do you think it would have been plausible for a tribe or group of tribes of Amerindians (American Indians, native Americans, Red Skins etc etc) to have gained enough recognition from the US govt as well as not loosing too much land that they were able to join as a state, lets say around the Dakotas or an area like that. Would they have needed to adopt (readopt) agriculture and large towns? Basicaly was it ever possible for one of the 13-70 states of the USA (this is alt history so it could of been alot more) to have been officially a native state but given the same status as New York, Maryland or Georgia, with a governor and seats in congress and all that jazz?


P.S I'm from New Zealand so if I clearly don't understand the way America works thats cos I kinda sorta dont :)
 
Without an extremely early POD, and in one word; No.

From a demographics point of view (number of available manpower in the New World vs. the number of possible European colonists), from a cultural point of view (the different tribes never would've considered a large enough alliance to make a difference, and a pan-Indigenous identity could never form back then), from a technological/industrial point of view ('nuff said), it was clearly out of the question.

And in terms of being offered their own state/internal sovereign territory, it would seem doable with 20/20 hindsight (what with the development of South African Bantustans), but the balance of power was never really in the Native Americans' favor enough to make such an idea feasible. Indeed, fear/distrust of the Natives was a deeply-rooted aspect of the Colonial American character by the time the Revolution happened, and a more successful defense of their tribal lands would only harden such feelings instead of garnish respect for their self-standedness. Conversely, melting into the Colonial American idea of "civilisation" would've seen them subsumed into losing their identity OR suffering a similar fate as OTL (technically, Oklahoma WAS a Native American conclave in America...look at how well that turned out).

That's not to say it couldn't be done with enough lead time, but a TL where that'd happen would likely result in a much different Era of Exploration. The best I think would be achieved is the Aztec's temporary victory over the Spaniards in the 1500s. And even then, there's another aspect to why the Natives were screwed; disease.
 
Well, there was the Indian Territory, which was one big tragic bantustan.

Hey, your talkin' about my peeps. Seriously, the only real possibility of an "Indian state" was the proposed state of Sequoyah in what is now eastern Oklahoma. Sequoyah was formed from the combined Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole Nations and petitioned for statehood in the early 1900's. The Theodore Roosevelt Administration and Republicans in Congress refused to consider Sequoyah's separate admission largely because they rightly feared the state would be staunchy southern and Democratic. Instead Indian and Oklahoma Territories were merged and admitted as one state, which added only one potential Democratic state, not two.

It needs to be noted, though, that while the State of Sequoyah was proposed by Native leaders and many influential White residents of IT in part to protect the existing corporate identity and local governmental structures of the Five Civilized Tribes, it would not have been an Indian-majority state. Also, the resident tribes were literate, town dwelling farmers who already had established the basic legal, law enforcement, and physical infrastructure for statehood under the US constitution. Whites already outnumbered Indians in Indian Territory, and as the years went on, it would be less and less "Indian" in population. It would basically become another Arkansas with a lot more more brown faces. It would also have not become a "homeland" for Indians in general. In fact resident tribes would have probably resisted attempts for other Indians to move there and maintain their own tribal identities. It would have been interesting.
 
Actually, there were plans to admit the Muscogee/Creek as a state during Washington's administration. Washington and Knox were both keen on it, borders subject to negotiation but probably roughly OTL Alabama. The plan failed because of the Creek chief, Alexander McGillivray, who wasn't really negotiating in good faith (Loyalist in the revolution, his properties in Georgia were confiscated, etc). It wouldn't be too hard to see the plan through. Whether the state of Creek retained its identity in the face of white immigration is an interesting question, but it'd have a quite different state constitution than the rest, and perhaps set a precedent for later.
 
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