Notes

In some ways, the answer is simple: participate in government (vote), pay your taxes, don’t break the law, and contribute to the economic well-being of the United States. But there is more. The definition of being a good citizen is bound up in society’s core cultural values and how those values are practiced in the nation or community. Tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) are at the forefront of the application of tribal core cultural values that are the foundation of good citizenship. In the United States, core cultural values include property ownership, wealth creation, and, politically, the idea of a representative democracy in which voters elect people to represent them in political roles. Such roles can be within the government, whether that be state, local, or national, or they can be in other kinds of entities such as corporations, nonprofits, and neighborhood organizations. But there are other American cultural concepts that contribute to expectations about citizenship, including patriotism, civil rights, the concept of one man-one vote, and, more recently, nationalism. There are also laws that are designed to ensure access to political participation and the success of core American values such as the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, and laws related to access to credit. The core cultural values of the United States are often described as “freedom.”