For this post I have chosen the Website of the California Valley Miwok Tribe, on which there is a great emphasis on the fact that this tribe is 'a federally recognised sovereign nation'. The fact that they have these words on their website logo shows that they are proud to be recognised as sovereign by the US government. The tribe is located in San Joaquin County and Calaveras County, California and had been there for as long as 3,000 years, before they were moved into the reservations. On the home page they state that their 'mission is to preserve the cultural traditions of the Miwok people', showing that even in today's world, where so much of everyday life revolves around technology, they are still able to maintain the legacy of their ancestors, through practising traditions that the early anglo-Americans tried so hard to get rid off, showing that they are not at all ashamed of their heritage.
One section on the website is devoted to Miwok culture and provides access to some Miwok tribal archives. One of the accessible documents on the site is called the 'CVMT Retention Program', which is just a booklet that talks about the importance of language as a means of preserve Miwok culture, one point that they make is:
'The California Valley Miwok Tribe believes that its cultural identity not only consists of passing on its traditional knowledge and skills of ceremonies, dances, songs, medicines, preparing and cooking foods, arts and crafts, spiritual beliefs, sacred stories, hunting and gathering practices and retaining the Miwok language... Language contains generations of wisdom. When a language is lost, the knowledge that language represents is also lost... The Tribe believes that retaining our language is a central component of cultural identity.'
This, again, shows the pride they have in their culture, and the recognition of the importance it is to preserve this culture by whatever means possible. However, there is no information on the website about the tribe's history, despite it being a federally recognised nation. This could be for a number of reasons, and perhaps the aim of this tribe as a recognised nation is now to educate its youth and even adults on the history of a tribe, that was almost completely destroyed by the early settlers. The emphasis on the importance of Miwok language retention as a means of preserving their cultural identity could, perhaps, show that the Miwok language is one of the only authentic aspects of this tribe that remains in modern USA.
Another part of the website that can be seen to show the financial situation of the Miwok Tribe is their involvement in the USDA Food Distribution programme that delivers food to needy tribal people on a monthly basis. This shows that the actual people of the tribe do not all have regular incomes and rely on support from the United States Department of Agriculture, which is a federal government organisation, which in turn, shows that they can not be entirely independent of the federal government, because of their poor financial situation.
The Tribe do, however, acknowledge the importance of the education of their people in order to achieve success. They have advertised the 'California Conference on American Indian Education', which is an opportunity for Indians in California to advocate academic opportunities for Indian children as well as adults, who want to advance the education of Indians, in order to honour their ancestry.
Overall, as a measure of the tribes social and financial success, the information, or lack thereof, provided on the Miwok Tribe website could be seen to show that they are not one of the most independent tribes, and are not in the best financial situation, and are in need of some education to enable them to have a better chance of improving their lifestyle.
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