Changing Political Organization in the Jicarillo Apache Reservation Community

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine changes in political organization which have taken place in the past few years on the Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation. This has been a period of intensified change on the reservation, marked by innovations in a number of areas, and in consequence the authors were invited by the Jicarilla Apache tribe to develop a research project to assist in the evaluation of programs in progress. Although major emphasis in Tribal planning was focused on economic contexts, the responsibility for decisions was vested in the two major reservation governing bodies—the Tribal organization and the local Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Necessarily, we devoted attention to the organization and operation of these political agencies, both because of their crucial role in decision-making and because of their intimate involvement in the complex of changes typical of the reservation scene.