246 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 196 



in Thomas' construct. Therefore, direct quotation may further the 

 comprehension of a blurry picture. 



He is much more inconsistent in regard to how he verbalizes value and world 

 view than the Conservative. And individuals in this group vary as to the extent 

 of how much white values and how much Indian values they verbalize. Be- 

 haviorwise they generally behave as if they still believed in the old Cherokee 

 values and view of the world . . . there is a range in this group as to how manj'- 

 white values they have internalized. Overtly, their personality seems more 

 "open" than the Conservatives. They are friendly and open to whites and Indian 

 strangers. Perhaps because they are much more anxious about their relations 

 with whites, they seem to have less emotional control than Conservatives. . . . 

 They have ceased to use Cherokee because it seems to serve no purpose in the 

 modern world. Most of them still believe in Indian medicine, although they 

 don't like to admit it . , . the institution which most exemplifies Cherokee 

 values, the Free Labor Society, they preserve. [Ibid., p. 22] 



The Rural- White category is almost self-explanatory. First and 

 foremost, the individuals in it are nearly White; in some instances 

 Indian inheritance is not visible at all. They are very much like the 

 rural White people of the area surrounding the reservation. The 

 Conservatives define them as White, and, by this definition, they do 

 not belong on the reservation. According to Thomas, one reaction 

 to this is often defensiveness and guilt about their status. Some, 

 however, do not seem to care as long as they are left alone. They 

 seldom belong to a Free Labor society. It is doubtful whether some 

 of these people have any Indian ancestry (ibid., p. 23). 



The fourth group, and the most recent to develop, is the Middle 

 Class. The bulk of these people are nearly White, but there are some 

 who are not. Members of this category have their origins either in the 

 Rural White group or the GeneraUzed Indian segment of a generation 

 ago. Their major occupation is business. Thomas states that the 

 near White Middle Class people identify with the entire community 

 in an attenuated manner; most of their ties are outside of the com- 

 mimity. The segment deriving from the Generalized Indians iden- 

 tifies with the community and is "intellectually" Indian. These 

 people interact with Whites of their class level. Ideologically and 

 behaviorally, they seem to resemble Whites. In personality organi- 

 zation, Thomas (ibid., pp. 23-24) says that they show similarities 

 to the Generalized Indians, but they are more stable and more 

 sophisticated. 



The outline which Thomas has given us discloses a skeleton of 

 acculturative types. To further illustrate his concept, we will 

 present a composite picture of a family in each of the four categories, 

 both for the purpose of enriching the preceding description and to 

 propose a series of ideal types to use as a benchmark from which to 

 judge oiu* data. 



