Blood quantum is a colonizer idea. Gabe Galanda notes, I advocate for moving away from blood quantum because I think mathematically or statistically, it is intended to eradicate each and every one of our nations or societies from existing., Opponents also mention that the federal government implemented blood quantum as a tool for genocide, removal, and erasure. Russell Means explained that 40% of the natural resources are held on trust land. And that pisses me off. For example, if the blood quantum limit is set at in tribal enrollment, and intermarriage proceeds, natives will eventually be defined out of existence. Please upgrade your browser. Because of their black appearance, they were listed on a separate roll. In 1978, a congressional survey found thirty-three separate definitions of Indians in various pieces of federal legislation. In 1893, the Dawes Commission was created to enforce the provisions of the act for the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogees (Creeks), and Seminole tribes. Its a big issue especially for tribes that have many bands, like Ojibwe. Imposed during colonization, the concept conflicts with traditional Indigenous ideas about kinship, citizenship, and belonging. Thats why defending blood quantum has Indigenous people sounding like white supremacists products of white supremacy will ALWAYS align with white supremacy. In 1912, Congress conditioned funding and membership for some tribes on blood quantum, limiting its obligations to only those tribes and individuals it deemed to have enough Indigenous blood. The federal government used blood quantum to deny some mixed-race Native Americans land during this time by requiring at least one-quarter Native blood to receive allotments. Taking blood quantum this seriously made me laugh, as did all the imaginary babies. Sometimes its relatives or close friends. Blood quantum emerged as a way to measure "Indian-ness" through a construct of race. Finally, opponents mention that blood quantum can strain families and relationships. FIGHT AGAINST THE INFILTRATION.. 2021), http://box2539.temp.domains/~califrp0/blood-quantum-and-the-white-gatekeeping-of-native-american-identity. When I became a teenager, my family started requesting grand babies. One of the questions that kept coming up is: OK, so why don't tribes just ditch these blood quantum requirements and switch to an enrollment requirement that uses lineal descent? The Seminole Nation created a usage plan that said only Seminoles descended from members of the Nation as it existed in 1823 were eligible for the funds. Should it be? When the Bureau of Indian Affairs began recording blood quantum designations in the 1880s, white settlers had the final say when it came to the numbers. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. The Dawes Act, passed in 1887, broke up communally-held Native lands into individual parcels, or allotments. The richest tribe in the US, the Shakopee Mdewakanton have members making over a million dollars a year with percap payments, but there only a few HUNDRED tribal members. (Hey America, did yall know that your taxes are already paying for universal healthcare? [2] I have put references to type or amount of blood in quotation marks because they denote social constructs, not biological realities. endstream endobj startxref Every answer to this request is insufficient because our tribal community continues to grow smaller. I dont think the federal government was promoting miscegenation. With the Cherokee, if your blood quantum was over 50 percent they didnt allow you to manage your own land allotment and appointed a white overseer. But again, I would say that is certainly the minority of this side of the cases. ' wAF +]QOMpZrd=CubZfz 2ut}v+wl+ And there is an agency called the Indian Health Service that distributes free(for us) healthcare. The reasons are as follows: first, blood quantum Speaking of blood libel, because that's what it is, protesting the 2020 election result is the same as slavery, as the KKK. But a great example for how to understand this problem in real life is that there is a history of freedmen who are black individuals who were living as fully incorporated members of Indian tribes. My first memory of having blood quantum problems happened when I was four. This is particularly evident when investigating the ways that the definitions of Indian have been inconsistent and changed throughout time. Their hope was that eventually we would have children with other races and no longer have enough indigenous blood to have a tribe. Reservation-bound male heads of households received allotments, though in many cases a 1/4 American Indian blood quantum was used to determine who was eligible for an allotment of land. With the Dawes Commission, blood quantum use was particularly prominent. Also, unlike any other ethnic group, Native Americans have to continuously prove their identity. Because Cherokee society was matrilineal, children became part of their mothers clan, regardless of paternal lineage. Due to the blood quantum qualification, many people were ineligible, thereby effectively reducing the Indian holding of land. Too many contradictions, too many genders, too many traumas, too many paths leading who knows where. They find me obstinate. Occasionally we get thrown out or banned from events, public places, and private homes. Webblood. But what the heck is a real native? ne of the frustrating elements of U.S. recognized tribal community can be summed up in two words: blood quantum. It only exists until we do not. This amount is used to determine the individuals tribal belonging and legal rights. Mother and grandmother try to build love matches with men they know. She enjoys reading, painting, sewing, and traveling. Why do tribes use blood quantum? Currently, all Natives enrolled in a federally-recognized tribe are issued a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood, also known as a CDIB, by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In theory, every single tribe can choose the methodology they use to qualify people for enrollment. The federal government also often recategorized Black Cherokees as Freedmen just because they looked phenotypically Black, even if they had originally been on the blood roles. Many tribes use a 25% blood quantum standard. Just not for yourself). WebThe term blood quantum is used to refer to the amount of Alaska Native or American Indian blood a person has. Simply Blood Quantum was created by federal governments to eradicate Indigenous peoples. Blood Quantum in the modern sense was first officially used by the BIA after the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, better known as the Indian Welfare Act. 37 0 obj <>stream Blood Quantum is a strategy used by the government and tribes to authenticate the amount of Native blood a person has by tracing individual and group ancestry. ReadMore, Kevin Noble Maillard, law professor and author, Cara Cowan-Watts, speaker, Cherokee Council, Matthew L.M. They have the final say when it comes to decisions about blood quantum and citizenship. This law was used to reduce the civil rights of Indigenous people with or greater blood quantum. Spewing awesomeness all over the web! As we mentioned at the start of this guide, blood quantum is controversial, with many different arguments for and against. I totally think we should. White settlers first imposed blood quantum in the early colonies as a way of limiting the rights of Native people. Ultimately their decision has to be respected in order to uphold tribal sovereignty. Finally, some nations are incorporating knowledge of language, culture, and traditions into their citizenship requirements. "The systems are so complicated," she explains, "but it's all part of tribes deciding on their own terms, in their own ways, utilizing their own sovereignty [to decide] what approach is best for them.". Without doubt, the Cherokee Nation engaged in blatant racial discrimination. The conversation around blood quantum is continuously evolving. "I use the term 'Colonial Catch 22' to say that there is no clear answer, and that one way or another, people are hurt," says Elizabeth Rule. Its very important that Native nations consider their power as sovereign nations and their ability to write their own laws and to self-govern., Gabe Galanda sums it up well: Anyone who cares about this country, loves this country, and respects and honors the history of this countrywhether thats an ugly history, a beautiful history, or a combination of bothshould want the Indigenous peoples of these lands to exist in perpetuity. Its the percentage of how native a person is. The adoption of non-blood individuals into clans highlights that blood quantum is foreign to traditional Cherokee practices. So this is a little long. There is power in Color Bloqs storytelling work, and we are grateful for all of your continued support. Garrouttes framework would nurture a counter-hegemonic narrative based in a sacred logic to which notions of genealogical distance and blood quantum are foreign and even irrelevant. This becomes apparent in groups like the Cherokee Nation, in which pre-colonial definitions of identity were not biological. One means of control was defining what it meant to be an Indian. The dominant White society in the United States has changed and manipulated legal and sociological constructions of race to further its goals: to acquire more land, preserve the institution of slavery, prevent certain groups of people from becoming citizens, maintain the White race, and more. She's a doctoral candidate at Brown University who specializes in Native American studies, and also a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. The question, its need, is ever constant. Native Governance Center, Blood Quantum and Sovereignty Event Recording. (Well say more about why the amounts were usually incorrect later.) Usually this is detailed on a CDIB (Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood) Card issued by the United States Government. Any unallotted surplus land was sold to non-Native buyers. It's an extremely progressive and interesting move, and they're really changing the game. She is part of the writing team at TIF and is the article and Instagram content writer. The federal government, and specifically the Department of the Interior, issues what is called a "Certified Degree of Indian Blood," and that is a card similar to an ID card. This article will focus on the Cherokee Nations history with Freedmen and their descendants, but the other four nations have equally rich histories worth discussing. Specifically, in the 1974 case of Morton v. Mancari, the Supreme Court held that a federal agencys hiring preferences of American Indians who met particular blood quantum requirements did not violate equal protection principles. Its not possible to actually calculate the amount of Native blood someone has. Meaning that those individuals don't meet the federal Canadian requirements of being a "status Indian," and they also don't have that blood quantum or descendancy from an original enrollee. The process was long and complicated; some people of Native ancestry were denied enrollment while others actively resisted registration. 5Q~)Pv8Mgg%;q={I8&]m.?HC(x%_G{mF"Yb`2o" . Consanguinity, meaning direct family descendance, was not exclusive in determining group membership, however. Such unresolved questions continue to plague tribes today and underscore the importance of sustained community dialogue as a starting point to acknowledge the complexities of tribal identity. Spending the first half of my life without tribal citizenship, only to gain this distinction once our tribe lowered the blood quantum minimum, Ive experienced both sides of the divide. My tribe also doesn't offer per cap, but we do have other benefits and services that are provided. Blood quantum was initially a system that the federal government placed onto tribes in an effort to limit their citizenship. Later, they used blood quantum in treaties to limit the number of Native individuals receiving benefits. Because theres only one way those fractions can go long term without forceful intervention, with or without my womb. All of the Nations use Blood Quantum as a requirement for membership. When I tell my students this, they assume I loved rebuttals for the intellectual one-upmanship. Blood quantum was initially a system that the federal government placed onto tribes in an effort to limit their citizenship. The governments goal was to break up tribes by encouraging individual family farming. Before the arrival of Europeans, many Indigenous tribes used lineal descent and defined Native identity through social-cultural-territorial definitions. I would argue that in this regard, tribes were influenced by European-Americans to at least some degree. And potentially, some of those incentives would be financial gain if the tribe, for example, has gaming revenue or other industries. This is because if they let too many people enroll, they risk losing federal recognition and tribal property. To address concerns about scarce resources, those exploring alternatives to blood quantum are also emphasizing the importance of differentiating between citizenship and qualification for benefits. Soon enough, relationships become a constant occupation of classmates as well. And some tribes have extremely high blood quantums such as the Ute tribes(southern and northern) have a 5/8s blood quantum requirement. There wasnt a single self identified queer in our town and suspected ones found regular beatings a part of their life. Now blood quantum was forced on us. It was so uncontrollable that occasionally perceptive people could recognize these desires in me whether I wished them to or not. Many Native nations, including the Navajo Nation and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, still use it as part of their citizenship requirements. And, every Native nation has a different approach to defining citizenship and setting goals for the future. Typically. Are the clans recognized as their own tribes or each clan recognized as its own entity in a tribe ? To eradicate American Indigenous peoples would be to really erase Americas history. Here is the most important takeaway for non-Native folks about blood quantum: Native nations are sovereign, independent nations. FOR OUR DAUGHTER[S] . Bennett Caperss article Against Prosecutors challenges us to imagine a world where we turn away from prosecution as we know it, and shift power from prosecutors to the people they purport to represent.[1] In this world, crime victims decide whether to prosecute their own cases, and public prosecutors play a subsidiary role, taking primary responsibility [], When I was a prosecutor, I relished closing arguments, especially standing in front of the jury to deliver my rebuttal to defense attorney summationsplural since many of my trials involved multiple co-defendants and hence multiple defense summations. Some tribes dont. Blood Quantum policies are little other than genocidal and will eventually lead to the extinction of indigenous people. Before colonization, Native nations used various forms of lineal descent to determine membership. And so, for example, these officials would mark someone potentially as "full blood" when potentially that person was not. Native art can be anything as long as the artist is native. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. In the context of developments such as urbanization, large numbers of Natives are in contact with non-Natives, increasing intermarriage rates. Blood quantum is the most common requirement used to determine membership among nations. How many tribes ore colonial times were pure. Its a complicated, controversial, and personal topic that has major implications for citizenship and belonging in Indian Country. Dr. Jill Doerfler notes, Were careful to try to help people see that citizenship is one thing, and services and entitlements, while connected to citizenship, are different. In an interview with the HPR, Professor Matthew Fletcher, a law professor at Michigan State University and a member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, said, if you ask 100 Indians to define Indians, youll get 100 separate definitions. In any case, Fletcher believes blood quantum occupies a more negative role in Indigenous communities today, citing repercussions of blood quantum use within his own tribe. Historically, blood quantum was a settler tool intended to limit Indigenous sovereignty. Blood Quantum and the White Gatekeeping of Native American Identity, Some Native Americans Fear Blood Quantum is Formula for Paper Genocide, Blood quantum influences Native American identity, Beyond Blood Quantum: The Legal and Political Implications of Expanding Tribal Enrollment, Jill Doerfler: Defining Citizenship: Blood Quantum vs. Descendancy. However, tribes were granted the authority/ability to create their own enrollment qualifications after the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. This guide is based on our event content; we are grateful to our presenters for sharing their insight with us. Wow , didnt know that .I know some tribes are single entity but I didnt know the clan thing. By contrast, many tribes and nations do not include blood quantum as part of their own enrollment criteria. A person's blood quantum is defined as the fraction of their ancestors, out of their total ancestors, who are documented as full-blood Native Americans. As we explored blood quantum in this week's episode, we thought a primer of what, exactly, this system is and how it works or doesn't might be useful. What is blood quantum, and why is it controversial? But WHY do tribes want this? Certainly, American Indians have been racialized. Watch our event recording to learn more. So the way that blood quantum is calculated is by using tribal documents, and usually it's a tribal official or a government official that calculates it. h[ks) vs13Xz'k}? . Even though they're using what a lot of people say is a "Colonialist construct"? So the quantum is a fraction of blood that is derived going back to the original enrollees of a tribe who were counted on Census rolls, and then their blood quantum was documented, and usually those original enrollees had a full blood quantum. In the 2006 case Marilyn Vann v. Dirk Kempthorne, regarding Cherokee Freedmen citizenship, the Cherokee Nation asserted that they could not be sued in a U.S. court because of sovereign immunity. Surplus reservation land was then open to homesteaders and corporations for purchase, creating patchwork quilt-like reservations with both American Indian and non-American Indian landholdings. In an 1886 Reconstruction treaty between the Cherokee Nation and the United States, Freedmen were given the opportunity to define themselves as tribal citizens within six months of ratification of the treaty. Are little other than genocidal and will eventually lead to the blood is... 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