Danielle Dominique Lucero

How do Pueblo people, specifically women, navigate tribal rules for enrollment and citizenship, dating and family formations, cultural participation, and reproductive and social labor? Studies of Indigenous citizenship and tribal enrollment practices are usually the domain of legal scholars and anthropologists who approach these issues through juridical-political frameworks dealing primarily with federal Indian policy and constitutionalism or cultural preservation. In each case, Indigenous identity is either inscribed as a set of specific cultural practices and characteristics, or self-identification. A focus on Pueblo peoples’ experiences navigating the fraught relationships between identity, race, sexuality, and place offers a productive interdisciplinary perspective on the rules governing Indigenous citizenship and the precarious positions of Indigenous mixed race and intertribal peoples. The primary research questions include: What are the impacts of existing parameters of tribal citizenship and enrollment practices on the reproductive and social labor of Indigenous women? How have the rules of tribal citizenship impacted dating, child rearing, and family structures within Indigenous communities? By offering an intensive examination of participants’ experiences within their communities, families, and interpersonal/romantic relationships, I aim to expand understandings of Pueblo identity and citizenship in the contemporary Southwest.