There may actually be some examples of post-slavery black societies of the sort you posit. The Gullah-speaking people near Hilton Head, SC appear to have developed their own sub-culture. There are also some pretty interesting examples of freed and escaped slaves forming new tribal societies in the Guianas of South America. Another, very different, example might be that of Liberia, the first President of which was from Petersburg, Virginia. Sadly, that’s about all I know about that subject.
As far as the overall question goes, well, how much do you want to know? It’s my job.
First of all, let’s get the politics out of the way. When we’re talking about “Indians,” we are most often talking about “tribes,” which are the political units under which American Indians operate when they are acting as a political entity.
Individual Indians now have all the rights of other Americans, plus a couple of extra benefits which are really not germane to this subject (mostly health care issues).
Recognized Indian tribes have a unique relationship with the United States which is not easily defined. They have a direct relationship with the federal government, as states do. They are also protected by sovereign immunity, as states are. But, no Indian tribe is as large, population wise, as a state, and all of the lower-48 tribes geographically exist within states. Politically, however, they are largely independent from states.
It is almost impossible to generalize about tribes. They have different titles and constitutions (at least one tribe elects a “King”), they have diverse cultural backgrounds, and they have varying objectives regarding their own futures. Some are highly traditional while others operate as lucrative business operations.
There is one thing that can be said about tribes in general. They are all fiercely independent. I think there is a fairly simple explanation for this. If you don’t want to live in tribal relations any longer, there’s nothing keeping you from walking straight away. And many do, leaving only those who are intensely interested in protecting the culture and sovereignty of their tribes.
And protecting that culture and sovereignty is a big, big problem, for they are under attack from all sides.
Most tribes do not have the population necessary to make them self-sustaining economic units. They must, therefore, generate income from outside of the reservation, and that is a big, big problem.
Geographically, tribes are often isolated. It is no joke when I say that tribes were reserved the shittiest land available. I can show you reservation names like “Big Cypress Swamp,” “Bad River,” “Devil’s Lake,” “Oil Springs,” and “Leech Lake.” When tribes were inadvertantly assigned land which happened to contain valuable minerals or other such assets, the land was either bought back by the United States, or rented to corporations at rates frozen in 1872, or allotted to individuals in fee title, or simply stolen. What’s left is not usually “good land.”
Infrastructure is a joke. The Indian Reservation Roads project has been pathologically underfunded since its creation, and can’t even keep up with the maintenance requirements they now have. One of my most beloved clients controls a reservation as large as the state of Connecticut–and it has no clean drinking water.
When tribes attempt to use their sovereignty to their economic advantage, as when they sell tax-free cigarettes and gasoline, they are attacked by powerful lobbies such as the National Governors’ Association and the gas station and convenience store lobbies. Every single year, someone in Congress tries to pass a law that requires tribes to charge an “equivalence tax” in order to keep states “competitive” with the reservations. Gambling has paid off big for a small number of tribes, but public outcry against Indian gaming is increasing and, truth be told, it doesn’t usually work out very well. When it does, it’s hated by neighboring non-Indians.
Sovereign immunity is a problem, sometimes, too. Companies don’t want to enter into agreements with tribes because if the tribe renegs on the agreement, the company has no recourse to sue, except perhaps in the tribal court. While this can usually be averted with a simple waiver of sovereign immunity on the part of the tribe, but often neither tribes nor companies trust that option.
Tribes do receive federal funding, to the modest tune of about four dollars per American taxpayer per year, which turns out to be far less than the average American receives as a result of federal funding to states.
And then there is the public perception. There is a tangible–and distasteful to me–misconception that tribes are of no consequence so long as they keep quiet and stay out of the way (and poor). When tribes do start to show progress, they are accused of enjoying special privileges and an unfair advantage. The truth of the matter is that the balance is far in favor of the ignorant finger-pointers, as this short list shows.
As I said, Indians can and do walk away from all these disadvantages. Those who remain, however, are willing to endure the hardships, because it is their heritage and their right to do so. This, above all, is the reason why the standard of living is so low across Indian Country–because they’re trying like hell to fix some very difficult problems instead of walk away from 'em.