American Indians are not all alike. Individual Indian tribes can be as different as the United States and France. Each tribe has its own culture, language and traditions.

A tribe is a society of people bound by blood ties, family relations, and a common language. Tribes also have their own religion and political system.

Today there are 558 federally recognized tribes in the United States, including more than 200 native villages in Alaska. Federal recognition acknowledges the government-to-government status a tribe has within the United States, and also provides certain federal services.

Federally recognized tribes are considered self-governing - or sovereign Indian nations - by Congress. So the federal government deals with tribes as political entities, not as a certain race.

In Minnesota, there are two Indian tribal groups: the Ojibwe (also known as the Chippewa) and the Lakota or Dakota (also known as the Sioux). Six of the Ojibwe bands are members of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. These bands are Bois Forte, Fond du Lac, Grand Portage, Leech Lake, Mille Lacs, and White Earth. A seventh Ojibwe band, the Red Lake Band, is separate from the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.

The four Dakota or Lakota bands are: Lower Sioux, Prairie Island Sioux, Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux, and Upper Sioux.

Altogether, the 11 Indian bands have more than 50,000 enrolled members. The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe has about 3,100 enrolled members.

Yes, Indians have dual citizenship as tribal members and as citizens of the United States. Tribal membership does not prevent Indians from being Americans, and Indians have the same rights and duties as other citizens of this country. They can vote in local and national elections and run for public office.

Probably the best-known Indian-elected official is United States Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell. He is a Republican from Colorado, and a member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe. Earlier in this century, Kaw Indian Charles Curtis was Vice President of the United States under President Herbert Hoover.

On the local scene, voters recently elected Loretta Kalk, a Mille Lacs Band member, to the Kathio Township Board. She is one of the first Indians from this region to be elected to public office.

Unbelievable as it may seem, Indians did not always have the right to vote and run for office. Indians living within the borders of the United States were not declared citizens of this country until 1924.

Although Indians could claim American citizenship after 1924, their rights were still limited. For example, Indians were denied religious freedom and kept from worshipping at their sacred sites on federal lands. Indian prisoners could see priests or ministers but not Indian healers. Not until the Religious Freedom Act of 1978 did Indians have these rights.

Another example: federal laws protected the cemeteries of all American citizens except Indians. Grave robbers could steal remains and artifacts from Indian graves until 1990, when Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

Indians have always been citizens of their own nations within this country, but it took years and many small battles to achieve the rights that come with U.S. citizenship.

The termination era was one of the most difficult periods American Indians ever experienced. It was an era, which roughly corresponded to the "Eisenhower years" of the 1950s, when the United States government tried to end trust agreements with Indians. Termination was one of many unsuccessful attempts to "deal with the Indians" who were the first People on this land and in this country.

Many congressmen at that time argued that the Bureau of Indian Affairs kept Indians dependent on government. Therefore, they suggested that Congress should sever any ties with Indians, including legal protections and support services.

While the policy supposedly was intended to help Indians become self-sufficient, the result was completely the opposite. Indians were reduced to surviving on the barest of necessities, and their suffering was almost beyond human comprehension. Tribes were suddenly left to finance education, health care, and other services, with depleted or non-existent trust funds. The idea of tribal self-government was nearly non-existent.

The Mille Lacs Indians suffered in many other ways during the termination era. Their treaty rights were ignored, their businesses stopped receiving assistance, and they lost any voice in federal or state government.

At the same time, Congress passed Public Law 280 which gave the United States government jurisdiction over criminal and civil laws on Indian reservations. As a result, Mille Lacs Indians were frequently subject to harsher treatment and longer sentences under criminal law than non-Indians. Indian children often were placed in foster homes or adopted, and state officials ignored tribal hunting and fishing rights, causing wide-spread hunger and even starvation.

The termination policies of the 1950s also encouraged Indians to leave their homes and move to cities in order to find jobs. The termination era officially ended in 1959, but the effects of this policy, which left crushing poverty and a weakened economic system, lasted for a much longer time. Not until the last decade have the Mille Lacs Band members and other Indians been able to start to turn the devastation of the 1950s around.