Reznet

Blood quantum, federal recognition and everything in between

By Dalton Walker

American Indian, Native Americans, Aboriginals, Indigenous, Natives … The list goes on. What is correct? What is offensive? What is preferred?

More than likely someone is going to get ticked off by one of them.

In the journalism world, news organizations use a stylebook, and American Indian is usually the preferred term. However, some publications use Indians, Native Americans or Natives. I prefer Natives. Younger generations tend to refer to themselves as Natives or by the names of their tribes. A Native is defined by most dictionaries as a member of an aboriginal people of America. Key word: member.
More than 560 tribes are recognized by the federal government. More are fighting for recognition. With recognition come certain benefits such as health care, but more importantly, there comes a sense of pride, a sense of belonging.

At least I hope.

Rarely is blood quantum ever brought up unless it has to do with enrollment. Most non-Natives don’t understand the process of how someone is enrolled or federally recognized by their blood quantum. It’s confusing, some have told me. I agree. We are the only U.S. citizens who have to report our Native blood quantum.

How can someone be a quarter Native? In other words, is one of their legs considered their only Native part? It’s laughable, yet very serious and, to most Natives, it’s an everyday struggle.

There is a quiet storm brewing, and it’s only a matter of time before it blows up in our faces. Just ask the Cherokee Freedmen who were recently ousted by the 270,000-member Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee Freedmen are descendants of former slaves owned by Cherokees. Some argue that they have Cherokee blood along with their black ancestry. I guess that’s not good enough to belong to certain tribes.

Freedmen were adopted into the tribe in 1866 under a treaty with the U.S. government. In a recent special election, more than 76 percent of voters decided to amend the Cherokee Nation's Constitution to remove the estimated 2,800 freedmen descendants from the tribal rolls. The result is expected to be challenged. The amendment limits citizenship in the Cherokee Nation to Cherokee, Shawnee or Delaware. It excludes descendants of those listed on Intermarried White and Freedmen rolls taken at the same time, according to the tribe’s Web site.

"The Cherokee people exercised the most basic democratic right, the right to vote," said Chad Smith, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, in a news release on the tribe's Web site. "Their voice is clear as to who should be citizens of the Cherokee Nation. No one else has the right to make that determination. It was right of self-government, affirmed in 23 treaties with Great Britain and the United States and paid dearly with 4,000 lives on the Trail of Tears."

Yes, it is a right to vote, but I strongly disagree with Smith’s opinion that "their voice is clear as to who should be citizens." Clear? How is that possible when less than 10,000 tribal members voted and 76 percent voted yes? I’m sure more people could have voted if they decided to.

It’s kind of scary knowing tribes can oust other Natives at any time. Does that mean they are no longer Native? But it goes back to the age-old question: Who is Native?

"Well they don’t look Native." Yeah, we all heard that one before. What are we supposed to look like? Chief Yahoo? Are we supposed to have ponytails and wear feathers? Is our skin tone supposed to be dark brown along with our stoic facial expressions?

The bottom line is that things are changing. Natives can look like anyone. They can be black, white, Asian … whatever. Why are we judging one another? It’s bad enough when another race judges us. Blood quantum will always be an issue. It was created so one day we would be extinct. I guess that day is coming quicker than we anticipated.

"Well, they don’t act Native." Act Native? Teach me, please. City Indian, reservation Indian, country Indian … we are all the same. Just because you grew up on the reservation doesn’t mean you have more credibility over city Indians or vice versa. What kind of example are we leaving the young ones? It should come down to the individual. It should come down to the Native pride inside. It should come down to how much you care about Native peoples, not by the way you look or if you are enrolled or not.

Will that day happen? I’m optimistic.

Dalton Walker, Red Lake Anishinabe, is a reporter at the Argus Leader newspaper in Sioux Falls, S.D. Walker is a graduate of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and the American Indian Journalism Institute. A longtime reznet staff writer and a Chips Quinn Scholar, Walker had reporting internships at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis and The New York Times.

To send Dalton Walker a message please click here