By Lee Longhorn

Bixby, Okla.— You’re probably wondering how you explain to someone their ancestry and the complexities of blood quantum and tribal membership. Well, if you came from my family, it’s easy to explain but hard to digest.

Until the tenth grade, I firmly believed that I was one-half Muscogee (Creek) and one-half Absentee Shawnee. When I was a junior, I decided to inquire my aunt, a former executive officer, who pretty much knew our whole family history. The response I got was a little surprising.

From my Certificate Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB, for those who know what that is) card I knew I was 3/16 Creek. I also knew from my dad’s CDIB card I was 3/8 Absentee Shawnee. My grandmother was full-blood Shawnee and my grandfather is half Shawnee and half Eastern Delaware. My aunt responded with this information:

1/8 Sac & Fox (That’s why my aunt’s have red and white tribal tags)

1/16 Seneca-Cayuga (Which is why I attended the Seneca-Cayuga Green Corn ceremony as a kid)

1/16 Wyandotte (Color me surprised)

1/16 Seminole

3/16 Creek

I couldn’t believe it. Yes, go ahead and add it up. It’s 4/4. Now, let me clarify some information I found out not too long ago.

I called my great-aunt Kitty and asked her about her grandparents. She then added that the blood quantum I was told about the Seneca-Cayuga did not match what she actually was. I asked her what she meant and she told me that I was part Onondoga too. After asking my aunt, I found out I’m actually 11/128 Seneca-Cayuga. This meant that I’m somewhere along the lines of 1/128 Onondoga and around 1/32 Wyandotte. That’s still not much but it’s enough to claim. If you’re like me and not that good with math, well let me tell you, I excel at fractions now.

I meet people all the time that always have the same phrase “I’m Indian. My great-great-great grandfather was Cherokee and that makes me around 1/8 or so.” My thought is “No, it doesn’t. It makes you about 1/32. Come on, it’s simple fractions.”

This whole fraction thing used to make me scared of math, and like any journalist, I took the bare basics in college. I wish there was a class with just fractions. I can add, subtract, multiply, divide and figure out how much ancestry you really have. I should have worked for the Dawes Commission. Least, I would have gotten most of them right.

Lee Longhorn is an intern reporter at the Muscogee Nation News.