The Policy and Standards Division has determined that names of Indian tribes recognized by the U.S. government as legal entities will henceforth be tagged 151 (Geographic name) in name authority records rather than 110 (Corporate name), as they were previously tagged. This change in status of headings for tribal entities to 151 (Geographic name) will enable these headings to be used as jurisdictions when needed in cataloging. When a heading of this type is used to represent a government (110) the MARC 21 indicator will be set to "1" to reflect that this entity is acting as the name of a jurisdiction. These headings may also be used as geographic subdivisions, subdivided directly. This is in keeping with the guidance provided in rule 21.35 of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules 2nd edition (AACR2) in regard to treating tribal entities as national governments.
By authority of the U.S. government, a growing number of tribal entities have been formally recognized and are federally acknowledged to have immunities and privileges by virtue of their government-to-government relationship with the United States as well as powers, limitations, responsibilities, and obligations attributed to such tribes. This means that tribes recognized by the U.S. government are independent, autonomous political entities with inherent powers of self- government; they possess sovereignty and are equivalent to national governments. To date, there are over 500 recognized tribes within the continental United States alone. Virtually all federally recognized tribes have jurisdiction over some delimited area of land, a geographic place, although land and area vary with each tribe. Below are examples of registered names.
- Augustine Band of Cahuilla Mission Indians of the Augustine Reservation, California
- Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana
- Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, Washington
- Elk Valley Rancheria, California
- Spokane Tribe of the Spokane Reservation, Washington
- Akiak Native Community
- Angoon Community Association
- Hydaburg Cooperative Association
- Native Village of Elim
When establishing headings for the LC name authority file, catalogers are instructed to consult the official list created and maintained by the Department of Interior (DOI), Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), published and updated in the Federal Register. The current list of federally recognized tribes, entitled Indian Entities Recognized and Eligible to Receive Services from the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs is available at //www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/biaind.pdf (PDF, 122 KB). Updated lists of tribal entities from the Federal Register will be posted as received. This source should be recorded in a 670 field in the name authority record and may be cited as "BIA Indian Entities, [date of list]".
Example of recognized tribe(complete name authority record fields not provided):151 ## $a San Carlos Apache Tribe of the San Carlos Reservation, Arizona
. . .
670 ## $a BIA Indian Entities, Dec. 5, 2003 $b (San Carlos Apache Tribe of the San Carlos Reservation, Arizona)
Note that formulation of headings for populated places (ppl.) on reservations are governed by AACR2 Chapter 23 when found in the U.S. Board of Names Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) database on the Web at http://geonames.usgs.gov/ and should also be established as place names tagged 151 when these are different from the tribal entity.
Example of populated place name (complete name authority record fields not provided):151 ## $a San Carlos (Ariz.)
. . .
670 ## $a GNIS,July 29,2002 $b (San Carlos, Gila County, Arizona, populated place; 33ј20'43"N, 110ј27'09"W)
Both of these entities may subsequently be used as corporate name headings (110) as needed, following the current practice for government names in AACR2 Chapter 24, rule 24.3E.
Example of possible heading:110 1# $a San Carlos Apache Tribe of the San Carlos Reservation, Arizona. $t Constitution
When the reservation as a geographic area, not the tribal entity, is the subject of an item being cataloged, the guidelines in the LC Subject Headings Manual will continue to be applied, and these place names will continue to be established as subject headings tagged 151.
Example of subject heading:010 ## $a sh90004101
151 ## $a San Carlos Indian Reservation (Ariz.)
550 ## $w g $a Indian reservations $z Arizona
670 ## $a Work cat.: Brown, J.G. Geology and ground-water resources of the San Carlos Indian Reservation .... Arizona, 1990: $b t.p. (San Carlos Indian Reservation, Gila, Graham, and Pinal counties,Arizona)
670 ## $a Rand McNally
781 #0 $z Arizona $z San Carlos Indian Reservation
Guidelines in the LC Descriptive Cataloging Manual, Subject Headings Manual, and other relevant documentation will be adjusted to reflect this change. A special project will be undertaken at the Library of Congress to change existing headings to conform to this new practice.
