why blood quantum is problematic
Rooted in eugenics, the concept lacks any scientific basis. hb```f``g`a`Nc`@ &G@V9%ro3{Plda`RL!|F ` But its something Im sure the majority of the public dont know anything about and I think its important. Under this federal law, many Native nations adopted boilerplate constitutions developed by the federal government that included using blood quantum as a basis for citizenship. I'm glad my tribe is based on lineage and not percentage. It is certain that natives face serious inequalities in health care services and not genetically identifying as native can lead to improper health treatment. . And, every Native nation has a different approach to defining citizenship and setting goals for the future. Native American It is the US governments way of controlling who gets to be Native. endstream endobj 18 0 obj <>stream Blood Quantum policies are little other than genocidal and will eventually lead to On the Trail of Tears, Freedmen were the backbone that helped the Cherokee Nation survive. Usually this is detailed on a CDIB (Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood) Card issued by the United States Government. This is because if they let too many people enroll, they risk losing federal recognition and tribal property. Many Freedmen did, in fact, have Cherokee ancestry, but because they or their ancestors were enslaved, they lacked the documentation to prove it. Taking blood quantum this seriously made me laugh, as did all the imaginary babies. As we mentioned at the start of this guide, blood quantum is controversial, with many different arguments for and against. (Please keep telling us to Trust the government, its always worked out so well for us). The CDIB specifies an individuals blood quantum. Typically. This measurement can affect a persons tribal identity and ability to become a federal member. Blood quantum was initially a system that the federal government placed onto tribes in an effort to limit their citizenship. 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. { We can still have tribal enrollments without BQ. 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. Overall, the right of self-determination should not be used to insulate a tribe or promote discrimination and deny an individual the equal protection of the law. Who gets to tell the story, and what story do they get to tell? And they way they see it is no more Indians = no one to keep the trust. The government saw blood quantum as a way to strip. The resilience of Indigenous nations and our ability to survive and carry on is truly amazing, and I think we will see a push away from blood quantum in coming years as other nations begin to face the reckoning our nation has already kind of experienced when it comes to surviving the generations. The pressure to create heteronormative romantic partnerships and babies becomes unrelenting. Listen Live: Classic and Contemporary Celtic, Listen Live: Cape, Coast and Islands NPR Station. And some tribes have extremely high blood quantums such as the Ute tribes(southern and northern) have a 5/8s blood quantum requirement. Native Governance Center held a virtual event on blood quantum, Blood Quantum and Sovereignty, in March 2022. The US government wants tribes to keep using blood quantum so that one day, nobody will have enough tribal blood to be enrolled in a tribe. The BIA issues Native people a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB) that identifies an individuals blood quantum and Native nation affiliation. I try my best to avoid these discussions. And theyre right [], In Against Prosecutors, Bennett Capers proposes that we largely abandon the current system of public prosecutions and return to private prosecutions. So this is a little long. The Navajo Nation requires a minimum of 25 percent "Navajo blood," and Turtle Mountain requires a minimum of 25 percent of any Indian blood, as long as its in combination with some Turtle Mountain. Proven bio dad enrolled? Congress issued a statistic that 60% of Indigenous individuals will have one-fourth or less blood quantum in the next century. Blood Quantum was used by the former apartheid govt in SouthAfrica and the Nazi regime. It was so uncontrollable that occasionally perceptive people could recognize these desires in me whether I wished them to or not. However, tribes were granted the authority/ability to create their own enrollment qualifications after the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. 27 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<82A9F044F25EB42FE2F9B69288F2063B><2807E08E2DAA1C47973DB6902F185C3A>]/Index[14 24]/Info 13 0 R/Length 77/Prev 76225/Root 15 0 R/Size 38/Type/XRef/W[1 2 1]>>stream Ask Dave Epstein: What is freezing rain, anyway? [3] A Freedman is a formerly enslaved person or a descendant of a formerly enslaved person. That is the question of the century. Join Opinion on Facebook and follow updates on twitter.com/roomfordebate. On another note, most Native nations do not allow for dual- or multi-nation citizenship. Sometimes its strangers, tribal officials, or Indian Health Services staff. Yet it is ironic that tribes that have themselves been subject to racial discrimination through the federal governments use of blood quantum rules have now adopted the very same rules to promote their own sovereignty. 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. Rose Cuison Villazor is an associate professor at Hofstra University Law School and the author of "Blood Quantum Land Laws and the Race Versus Political Identity Dilemma," published in the California Law Review. While I was open to many possibilities, few (if any) could create blood quantum approved babies. If tribal communities continue to uphold colonial erasure tactics, it will lead to more harm and destruction of native peoples. When I became a teenager, my family started requesting grand babies. 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. In some tribes, people could gain tribal citizenship if they were born in, married or were adopted into, or had long-term residence within the tribal community, or if they assumed cultural norms such as religion and language. Why is it important? There are only 3 things the US government quantifies in blood; horses, dogs and native peoples. My desires had few, if any, barriers. The government hoped that using blood quantum would eventually eliminate Native peoplesthat intermarriage would dilute the amount of Indian blood in the population, This is particularly evident when investigating the ways that the definitions of Indian have been inconsistent and changed throughout time. The adoption of non-blood individuals into clans highlights that blood quantum is foreign to traditional Cherokee practices. [2] I have put references to type or amount of blood in quotation marks because they denote social constructs, not biological realities. Lol. African American? Maya Harmon: Membership Development Editor, California Law Review Vol. Its a complicated, controversial, and personal topic that has major implications for citizenship and belonging in Indian Country. WebThat response sounds like rhetoric ripped straight out of Tucker Carlson because Blood Quantum is a product of white supremacy. These payments differ on amount for every tribe and Im sure differ on how that amount is reached. The information shared above about the question, 1.Blood Quantum and the White Gatekeeping of Native American , 2.Some Native Americans Fear Blood Quantum is Formula for Paper , 3.Blood Quantum and The Freedmen Controversy: The Implications , 4.Blood Quantum and its role in Native Identity, 5.Real Indians and Fake Indians The Wellian Magazine , TOP 9 why blood quantum is problematic BEST and NEWEST, TOP 8 why blood is dark red BEST and NEWEST, TOP 8 why blood comes from nose BEST and NEWEST, TOP 9 why bloated during period BEST and NEWEST, TOP 8 why blind dates dont work BEST and NEWEST, TOP 9 why bless you after a sneeze BEST and NEWEST, TOP 8 why blend in when i was born to stand out BEST and NEWEST. Few friends believe me when I say that I dont have an interest in having babies or finding a sexual partner. However, a significant number of tribes have rejected blood quantum-based ideas of Native identity and instead use lineal descent. 0 Yet a person could be 100% Ojibwe and ineligible for enrollment if their parents and grandparents are each from different bands. I am strongly opposed to the colonial BQ policy but I also see the catch 22, if we dont enroll in the tribe then the govt gets our trust land. Finally, opponents mention that blood quantum can strain families and relationships. We leave. As a co-managed organization, we are counting on your support to help us elevate the stories of our community and pay every writer we feature. ' wAF +]QOMpZrd=CubZfz 2ut}v+wl+ VEU;W%o7 X}2]i,8i358F`K57VF}xgw(ZG"1HBpf$xgz YFd~SlXl^5M+: 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. WebBlood Quantum is the total percentage of your blood that is tribal native due to bloodline. Blood quantum, a means of quantifying a persons Indigenous ancestry in the United States, has a bleak history as an erasive tool used by the federal government. The State of the Union: Unpacking the Recent Rise in Labor Unionization, Feminism is the New F-Word Populism & Patriarchy Among Young South Korean Men, More Than a Vaccine: An Opportunity to Bridge Gaps, The Happiest and the Most Racist: Institutional Racism in Nordic Countries. The use of blood quantum as a genetic cut-off point for Indian people is viewed by many as an instrument of assimilation and extermination. The framework through which federal benefits are allocated to Indigenous communities is inherently paternalistic, which helps contextualize the erasive history of blood quantum. The reasons are as follows: first, blood quantum But WHY do tribes want this? Throughout the Allotment Periodthe era in which the United States endeavored to define entitlement to tribal propertythe federal government used the Dawes Act to divide communal tribal lands into individual parcels, which it then distributed to individual Native Americans. They blame my grandparents for making them too white. (Lineal descent basically means that, if your ancestors were enrolled in a tribe, you can be, too.). But it does happen and I just want to point it out again to show that there are difficulties on both sides and that there's not a clear-cut answer yet. Blood quantum, as a way to define native identity, was first seen during the allotment period between 1887 and 1934. We encourage you to take action to meaningfully support Native nations in strengthening their sovereignty. In In re Cruz, a Native American who had one-fourth African blood applied for citizenship on the basis of his part-African ancestry, but a New York federal court ruled that he was not Black and thus was not entitled to citizenship. The book is a compilation of articles by Indigenous intellectuals examining the history and current use of blood quantum to determine tribal citizenship and why its a problem. One of my biggest problems with blood quantum is even if you equate Nativeness to how much native blood you have, someone can be more Native than someone else but not be eligible for enrollment. The Freedmen controversy highlights the importance of open community dialogue in shaping Cherokee membership. We don't have per capitas though. It can affect your identity, your relationships and whether or not you or your children may become a citizen of your tribe. But also the fact of the matter is most east coast tribes are very obviously black natives and the racism in native spaces is real asf. Specifically, Freedmen, the descendants of Black slaves of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogees (Creeks), and Seminole tribes, have faced significant exclusion. Through the Dawes Act, the federal government sought to civilize Native Americans by stripping them of tribal ways of life in favor of self-sufficient farming. Also - how foolish that this topic was deleted?! Get all the latest from Sanditon on GBH Passport, How one Brookline studio helps artists with disabilities thrive. Blood Quantum is so effective because it expertly combines ingredients from the horror genre (in this case zombie horror) with a real-life horror story that needs to be toldthe story of the very human horrors that marginalized peoples like the First Nations have experienced for centuries, which continues to this day. Today, the BIA primarily uses the Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB) to determine enrollment in tribes and eligibility for federal social services. If each tribe is able to determine their own their own enrollment requirements, are there any tribes out there that you've heard of that are deciding to forego lineal descent and blood quantum and deciding to use another completely different method? If you've got 25 percent of Navajo blood according to that tribe's blood quantum standards and you have children with someone who has a lower blood quantum, those kids won't be able to enroll. Blood quantum was initially a system that the federal government placed onto tribes in an effort to limit their citizenship. Blood quantum was initially a system that the federal government placed onto tribes in an effort to limit their citizenship. Watch our event recording to learn more. Similarly, tribes that have land tend to be more exclusive than tribes that do not. In the present day, however, many nations and peoples voluntary use of blood quantum membership requirements complicates the story and suggests that there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to indigeneity. We need to get tribal governments to do away with it. Kids enrolled. The efforts of Vann and her partners were rewarded in the 2017 case Cherokee Nation v. Raymond Nash and Marilyn Vann, in which Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan ruled that Freedmen citizenship is coextensive with the right of native Cherokees. Following the decision, Vann said she was elated.. Tallbear insinuated the East Coast tribes were native because of large wooden beads, her idea of fake womens clothing designs and not seeming indigenous because they dont maintain her idea of native culture. As Gabe Galanda explains, Before contact, the great majority of our nations today self-identified as kinship societies. They find me obstinate. Does the use of blood quantum rules in these places seek to exclude on the basis of race as well and create a racial hierarchy? Natives have to carry a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB, issued by the Bureau of Indian Affairs). The economic implications of this categorization were on display in the 1990s, for example, when the federal government decided to pay the Seminole tribe for land the government seized in 1823. Search Query Show Search. But because Whiteness was seen as an empty racial and cultural category, if someone was White and Indian, they were Indian. Those whod like to eliminate blood quantum point out that the original numbers are arbitrary. For example my tribe, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, has a blood quantum requirement of 1/16 as well as being able to prove thru birth/death certificates that the applicant is a direct descendant of a tribal member that is on the 1924 Census Rolls. 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. They do not have enough blood quantum, and therefore oftentimes cannot be extended tribal membership. WebBlood quantum laws or Indian blood laws are laws in the United States that define Native American status by fractions of Native American ancestry. Blood quantum, like so many other factors, seemed an arbitrary barrier in sex concerns. Starting in the 18th century, however, settler encroachments on Native sovereignty pressured Cherokees to adopt settler practices, including slavery, to maintain some semblance of control over their economic and diplomatic affairs. 2022 Harvard Political Review. Here's my interview with Elizabeth Rule, edited and condensed for clarity. The Freedmen alleged that Seminole Nations decision was partly due to a recommendation from the BIA to the Nation that only blood Seminole[s] should be eligible. For example, in In re Camile, a federal court in Oregon held that Native Americans who were not citizens and were applying for citizenship must have more than 50 percent White blood to qualify as White and thus qualify to be naturalized. Spewing awesomeness all over the web! Both restrictive rules could be understood as their ongoing quest to overcome the effects of their colonization and dispossession of their sovereignty and lands. Blood quantum proponents state that their nation has had these particular rules in place for a certain period of time, and theyd prefer to stick with the status quo. Articles Podcast About Donate Contact. Some worry that if blood quantum rules are relaxed or eliminated, scarce resources (per capita payments, housing, other services provided by their Tribal government) will become even more scarce due to rapid population growth. Soon enough, relationships become a constant occupation of classmates as well. For instance, for the Cherokee Nation, membership was generally determined by kinship affiliations to one of the nations clans. These statistics raise questions about the future of blood politics, the makeup of the constituents of Native tribes, and the trajectories of tribal population numbers. Without doubt, the Cherokee Nation engaged in blatant racial discrimination. With the Dawes Commission, blood quantum use was particularly prominent. During the Treaty Periodthe time from 18171871 when the United States had a policy of negotiating treaties with tribes as sovereign political entitiesfederal officials used the language of blood to describe Native American ancestry, specifically those who were mixed with non-Native ancestry. This guide is based on our event content; we are grateful to our presenters for sharing their insight with us. If a prospective citizens blood quantum is lower than 14, they are not eligible to become a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. Blood quantum did not play a role in determining Tribal citizenship until the Indian Reorganization Act was passed in 1934. Blood quantum is a measure of the amount of Indian blood, expressed as a fraction such as one-half or one-fourth. The Dawes Act, passed in 1887, broke up communally-held Native lands into individual parcels, or allotments. ), Blood quantum is not an Indigenous concept. Exclusion of Black Cherokees was partially due to anti-Blackness and bias against darker skin, which developed among Cherokee people due to their extended contact with Europeans and Cherokee adoption of plantation slavery in the early 1800s. And honestly I know nothing about South Africa, how, if, did it end? Many Native nations, including the Navajo Nation and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, still use it as part of their citizenship requirements. For purposes of land allotment, the government wanted fewer people to count as Native American because it wanted to keep the majority of land to itself. ne of the frustrating elements of U.S. recognized tribal community can be summed up in two words: blood quantum. We need to tell them. How many tribes ore colonial times were pure. GBH News brings you the stories, local voices, and big ideas that shape our world. a?Jy63J v!RC":7d2e(mSGVMLmkBi59!+^J,_69;r5)P%>~sr?92xogSnm(^MR!_vSS9Ek:LMxCV; |S69~k$~| PF^2|'K\iBo ?_.$`hCZlsgz)Qkg})Hh#I;j+54;\ji;wd) t|lre,>\g Dg^|d/(. I totally think we should. In the Supreme Court case Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, Chief Justice John Marshall stated that the United States was a guardian to tribes in a state of pupilage. Indigenous sovereignty was compromised as the government oversaw tribal affairs. 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. And one of the ways that history could be eradicated, sadly, by design, is through blood quantum.. Any unallotted surplus land was sold to non-Native buyers. Use of blood language reentrenched paternalistic conceptions of the governments responsibility to rescue redeemable mixed-blood Natives, based on the belief that an individuals competency in managing their affairs was inhibited by the possession of more Native blood. Hardly any tribes are looking to move away from a blood quantum regime so I would say that its here to stay. You hear every time a tribe changes over to lineal descent, or that there is a newly recognized tribe, for example, that usually there's a mass group that's interested in joining. Although the federal governments use of blood quantum limits the number of Natives who have access to certain federal benefits, tribes currently have the right to determine their own tribal membership requirements. In the context of developments such as urbanization, large numbers of Natives are in contact with non-Natives, increasing intermarriage rates. Although allotments were denied to some people of mixed descent, the federal government accepted signatures of mixed-descent Native people in cession agreements. We couldn't do it without you. Not feeling sexual attraction toward anyone was queer enough to start fights, just like the potential proof of interest in the wrong people. Finally, some nations are incorporating knowledge of language, culture, and traditions into their citizenship requirements. Whether by requiring a higher blood quantum for federal recognition and benefits, denying Indigenous people U.S. citizenship, or influencing tribes to adopt their own blood quantum requirements, White people have been the gatekeepers of Native American identity. Both parents enrolled? The Seminoles, for instance, have also employed blood differences to deny membership. Almost all nations around the world have incorporated their former slaves, or colonized people into their societies. Vann also argues that Freedmen exclusion is a form of race-based discrimination that ignores their historical contributions to the Cherokee community. Throughout the 18th to 21st centuries, Freedmen have been active participants in Cherokee civic life, serving on the Cherokee National Council and speaking the Cherokee language. There are Indian Hospitals and clinics only for use by tribal members. 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. 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? In 1978, a congressional survey found thirty-three separate definitions of Indians in various pieces of federal legislation. Please upgrade your browser. If you're Native American, this controversial term about your blood can affect your identity, your relationships and whether or not you can become a citizen of your tribe. More Comanche babies meant a stronger tribe, and while I was told I had this responsibility both before and after gaining tribal citizenship, Ive never seen it effect my sexual desires or actions. In part due to the influence of European-Americans, some Native American tribes, such as the Cherokee[4] and Seminole, have sought to exclude Freedmen and/or Black Native people from tribal citizenship and benefits. The blood quantum policy was first implemented by the federal government within tribes to limit native citizenship. The concept of blood quantum was not widely applied by the United States government until the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Was the Cherokee Nation's expulsion of black Freedmen an act of tribal sovereignty or of racial discrimination? What is blood quantum? And howtribes use blood quantum varies from tribe to tribe. Although it seems contradictory, equal protection law allows the use of blood quantum to give preferential treatment to members of American Indian tribes. [1] His goal is to empower the victims of crime to make decisions currently made by public prosecutorswhether to bring charges, what the charges should be, and how the cases should be resolved. I also want to emphasize that it is the tribe's sovereign right to determine their own membership and whether that involves a blood quantum minimum or lineal descent system. The attorneys representing the Cherokee Nation in the lawsuit did not respond to requests for comment. Copyright How did people know that those original enrollees had "full blood quantum"? Wayne Ducheneaux II and Sally Fineday speak with the Counter Stories team about blood quantum. Indian Freedmen or their ancestors were formerly enslaved by Indian tribes. 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. If someone was Black and Native American, they were Black (unless they were seeking U.S. citizenship), no matter how much Native American blood they had. Within the Cherokee imaginary, blood was understood as a metaphorical, as opposed to literal, quality. They base citizenship on culture, liniage, and roll numbers. Sometimes its relatives or close friends. 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. Got a Pendleton jacket as a gift and they really got our My brother got featured on the official 7/11 page rocking One of my favourite pieces I've made called "Dancer". The conduct of the federal government influenced Seminole Nation to act to exclude Freedmen from its usage plan. 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. . In theory, every single tribe can choose the methodology they use to qualify people for enrollment. 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. Elizabeth Rule, edited and condensed for clarity they risk losing federal recognition and tribal property peoples. Differences to deny membership few, if someone was white and Indian, they were Indian telling to. They were Indian today self-identified as kinship societies tribal communities continue to uphold colonial erasure tactics it! Ducheneaux II and Sally Fineday speak with the Counter stories team about blood point. In health care services and not genetically identifying as Native can lead to more harm and destruction of American... And Indian, they risk losing federal recognition and tribal property Freedmen exclusion is a of... Multi-Nation citizenship how foolish that this topic was deleted? hardly any tribes are looking to move from! Was white and Indian, they were Indian that is tribal Native due bloodline. In 1978, a congressional survey found thirty-three separate definitions of Indians in various pieces of federal.. Governments to do away with it have enough blood quantum was not widely applied the. Use to qualify people for enrollment Please keep telling us to Trust the government its! 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