Just not for yourself). How many tribes ore colonial times were pure. If you're Native American, there's a good chance that you've thought a lot about blood quantum a highly controversial measurement of the amount of "Indian blood" you have. Now blood quantum was forced on us. Modern definitions of indigeneity within tribes closely mirror the nineteenth and early twentieth century European-American conceptions of race. (Lineal descent basically means that, if your ancestors were enrolled in a tribe, you can be, too.). That is the question of the century. As if the rest of us are responsible for the horrors that our nation was put through and the fact that we are the results of generations of survival. . She hopes to spread awareness on the inequities indigenous people face and help create an easy way to enlighten people on the topics through The Indigenous Foundation! https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/02/09/583987261/so-what-exactly-is-blood-quantum, https://oneida-nsn.gov/dl-file.php?file=2016/03/Article-2-Blood-Quantum.pdf, https://open.mitchellhamline.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1086&context=mhlr, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3941118/. And so, for example, these officials would mark someone potentially as "full blood" when potentially that person was not. The sad thing is if we have a child, they will be 1/32 under the limit to register with my husband's tribe despite being half Native overall. 5Q~)Pv8Mgg%;q={I8&]m.?HC(x%_G{mF"Yb`2o" Native Governance Center, Blood Quantum and Sovereignty Event Recording. 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. 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 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. You've used the phrase "personal gains" before to refer to some people who might've claimed Indian heritage. The conversation around blood quantum is Why do tribes use blood quantum? And again, I think it's helpful to understand the way that blood quantum works through another example that people may be more familiar with and that's the "one drop rule.". Even though they're using what a lot of people say is a "Colonialist construct"? Anishinaabe Aki stretches multiple states and provinces and there are over 100 different bands. 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. Evidently, among some Indigenous groups, systems of naturalization granted non-kin groups tribal membership. Our tribal community politics is such that if youre less than one-quarter blood quantum, youre dead to many people in the tribal community. 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. On these rolls, the Dawes Commission assumed three racial categories: freedmen, intermarried Whites, and Indians by blood. Ones racial classification dictated the size and location of their allotment: Full-blood Natives received small parcels of land while mixed-blood Natives received larger, better tracts of land. The majority still do. Blood quantum. The Freedmen controversy highlights the importance of open community dialogue in shaping Cherokee membership. I didnt understand how anyone thought to control their sexual attraction in such ways. Their policy If you follow blood quantum, you can trace every native line to its extinction. 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. Hearing the girls say, Ill never be interested in anyone that isnt Native, sounded familiar. Tribes use blood quantum as an enrollment tool requirement. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. The Cherokee Nation is not the only American Indian tribe that uses blood distinctions to restrict tribal citizenship, privileges and benefits. Today, the BIA primarily uses the Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB) to determine enrollment in tribes and eligibility for federal social services. What do yall think? Native girls spend their lunches adding up blood quantum fractions, trying to figure out whether any babies will make the requirements for their tribe or their new boyfriends tribe. The federal government used this strategy to further strip Native nations of their land base. The government hoped that using blood quantum would eventually eliminate Native peoplesthat intermarriage would dilute the amount of Indian blood in the population, causing descendants of Native peoples to become indistinguishable from the rest of the population. A Progressive Facade: Comparing the U.S. and Canadas Treatment of Indigenous Peoples, Carceral Institutions in the Era of COVID-19. Does any other ethnicity have to enroll to be a member of their own ethnicity? WebBlood Quantum is the total percentage of your blood that is tribal native due to bloodline. Before the arrival of Europeans, many Indigenous tribes used lineal descent and defined Native identity through social-cultural-territorial definitions. When I became a teenager, my family started requesting grand babies. Settlers upheld their conception of a superior White race by fabricating a link between Native blood and biological inferiority. Its not possible to actually calculate the amount of Native blood someone has. 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. 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. Someone could be 1/4 from the same band and be enrolled while someone else is 4/4 and not enrolled. While I was having a tea party with my great granny Estuvie, my drunken great uncles argued and verbally abused my mother. 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. 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. Though tribes can decide whether to use blood quantum, the BIA provides guidance on enrollment and supplies charts that tribes should use to determine the blood quantum of their members. That was really the underpinning of how we belonged.. nE$lbVL^bcw|i_0@hDbh`{Ob (q~g3+f^ [!pa4V2anvOweF-jNKY Some natives are out-of-touch with their own identity or dont feel native enough to identify as such. To eradicate American Indigenous peoples would be to really erase Americas history. Moving Closer to My Ancestors Means Letting Go of This Gender Binary, My Taino History Is Where I Will Find My Truest Self. African American? Home. "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.". The fuck. Native people of their land, evade the United States treaty-obligated responsibilities, and significantly reduce Native nations membership. For Indigenous people, the blood-based rule is referred to as blood quantum, which measures the fraction of Indian blood that a person possesses. We can still have tribal enrollments without BQ. In the context of developments such as urbanization, large numbers of Natives are in contact with non-Natives, increasing intermarriage rates. But WHY do tribes want this? Who gets to tell the story, and what story do they get to tell? Watch our event recording to learn more. True assertions of sovereignty made by the Cherokee Nation can only take place after recognition of the historical contributions of Cherokee Freedmen, 1866 treaty provisions, metaphorical conceptions of blood that existed prior to colonization, and the erasive, paternalistic history behind blood-based exclusion. Join Opinion on Facebook and follow updates on twitter.com/roomfordebate. So that over time, Indians would literally breed themselves out and rid the federal government of their legal duties to uphold treaty obligations. Copyright The conversation around blood quantum is continuously evolving. The federal government acquired the remaining lands by forming agreements with the tribes in which tribes would cede land for non-Native settlement. It argues for the reassertion and rebuilding of traditional knowledge from its roots, its fundamental principles.. Soon enough, relationships become a constant occupation of classmates as well. When I tell my students this, they assume I loved rebuttals for the intellectual one-upmanship. That history is very clear. The varying justifications both for and against blood quantum use suggests that there is no one right legal and social conception of indigeneity. (Not my Cherokee, there are 3 separate federally recognized tribes of Cherokee and their history is linked with the Trail of Tears and where they ended up after). And there is an agency called the Indian Health Service that distributes free(for us) healthcare. For instance, for the Cherokee Nation, membership was generally determined by kinship affiliations to one of the nations clans. The attorneys representing the Cherokee Nation in the lawsuit did not respond to requests for comment. Others see disregard for blood quantum as a way to build up a nations numbers for the sake of survival. However, when it came to questions of citizenship, the courts were quick to categorize mixed Native Americans as Indian. My tribe doesn't use blood quantum for obvious reasons. What many people dont know is that blood quantum laws have been in effect for about three hundred years. Blood Quantum policies are little other than genocidal and will eventually lead to the extinction of indigenous people. 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. Shake my head. Not feeling sexual attraction toward anyone was queer enough to start fights, just like the potential proof of interest in the wrong people. Blood quantum was initially a system that the federal government placed onto tribes in an effort to limit their citizenship. The blood quantum policy was first implemented by the federal government within tribes to limit native citizenship. Blood quantum is a concept created by white settlers that refers to the amount of so-called Indian blood that an individual possesses. This measurement can affect a persons tribal identity and ability to become a federal member. 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. [1] Throughout this article, I use the terms Native, Indigenous, Indian, Native people(s), and Native American interchangeably because there is disagreement among Native Americans regarding how they would like to be labeled. The one drop rule measured the amount of "black blood" that black people had in society. Kids enrolled. Just like blood quantum. { 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. Follow us so you don't miss a thing! Further, some people who had no Indian ancestry managed to acquire places on the rolls through dishonest means in order to receive land allotments. Its the percentage of how native a person is. Within the Cherokee imaginary, blood was understood as a metaphorical, as opposed to literal, quality. Its a complicated, controversial, and personal topic that has major implications for citizenship and belonging in Indian Country. Many Native nations, including the Navajo Nation and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, still use it as part of their citizenship requirements. Some tribes have zero blood quantum requirement such as the Choctaw and Cherokee Nation. These socially constructed categories of race are limiting and often create tension in self-identity. I can understand why some tribes still use blood quantum but I am extremely thankful my tribe doesn't. And that's that's one of the major problems with blood quantum today is that a lot of times, the people taking the rolls were federal government officials who were unfamiliar with Native ways of establishing and defining their own communities. 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. My grandfather cut ties with his brothers after that long, loud battle. 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. And finally, folks worry that these same outsiders may someday be elected to Tribal Council and sell their nations land. 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. Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation Chad Smith denied accusations of racism in the exclusion of Freedmen, instead arguing that later Congressional legislation like the Five Tribes Act of 1906 abrogated Freedmen rights to citizenship. [4] The Cherokee Supreme Court recently ruled that the words by blood would be removed from the Cherokee Nation constitution and other legal doctrines, thus allowing descendants of Cherokee Freedmen to have full citizenship rights. Others required reservation residency, ownership of land kept in a government trust, or tribal citizenship for federal recognition. And his son Tatanka Means. So, lineal descendant supporters think about high memberships through the lens of existence as a resistance right. Few friends believe me when I say that I dont have an interest in having babies or finding a sexual partner. 2023 Finally, opponents mention that blood quantum can strain families and relationships. 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. Go off! WebBlood quantum laws or Indian blood laws are laws in the United States that define Native American status by fractions of Native American ancestry. And first, I want to be clear that I don't intend to speak on behalf of any specific tribes or even on behalf of my own, but I'm happy to walk you through some of those arguments that exist in support of maintaining blood quantum requirements for tribal membership. But again, I would say that is certainly the minority of this side of the cases. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. 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. We don't have per capitas though. Due to the blood quantum qualification, many people were ineligible, thereby effectively reducing the Indian holding of land. This law was used to reduce the civil rights of Indigenous people with or greater 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. How long will this tribe last? So this is a little long. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Whos Really Responsible for Climate Change? Prior to colonization, the linguistic and cultural identities of North America were distinct and had group-specific membership criteria. Specifically, Freedmen, the descendants of Black slaves of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogees (Creeks), and Seminole tribes, have faced significant exclusion. There wasnt a single self identified queer in our town and suspected ones found regular beatings a part of their life. We should not Many Native nations also had ways of granting citizenship to non-kin, such as adoption and marriage. Imposed during colonization, the concept conflicts with traditional Indigenous ideas about kinship, citizenship, and belonging. Search Query Show Search. Indian Freedmen or their ancestors were formerly enslaved by Indian tribes. 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. We encourage readers to stay up to date on conversations happening around blood quantum and citizenship within the Native nations and communities closest to them. Instead, it served a political purposethe promotion of American Indians right of self-determination. Why is it important? Here is the most important takeaway for non-Native folks about blood quantum: Native nations are sovereign, independent nations. Decades later, Congress and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) began to use blood quantum to release mixed-race Native people of certain blood quantum from restrictions on sales and taxation of their allotmentsmeaning their land could then be sold to White people and subject to taxation. Blood quantum is the most common requirement used to determine membership among nations. To ensure that only Real Natives are enrolled in tribes. But its something Im sure the majority of the public dont know anything about and I think its important. Throughout history, blood quantum was used to define a point at which responsibilities to tribes, entitlement programs, treaty rights, and reservations would end. Blood quantum is a complicated, controversial, and personal topic that has major implications for citizenship and belonging in Indian Country. Others are eliminating blood quantum requirements entirely and using lineal descent (or sometimes, more specifically, patrilineal or matrilineal descent) to define membership. [3] A Freedman is a formerly enslaved person or a descendant of a formerly enslaved person. Rooting resource allocation in blood politics allowed the federal government to forge a correlation between increased dilution of Indigenous blood and higher socioeconomic status, grounded in the European belief that White blood uplifted Native blood. FIGHT AGAINST THE INFILTRATION.. It makes absolutely zero sense. Usually this is detailed on a CDIB (Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood) Card issued by the United States Government. She describes this framework in her book Real Indians, Identity and the Survival of Native America, proposing that Radical Indigenism illuminates differences in assumptions about knowledge that are at the root of the dominant cultures misunderstanding and subordination of indigenous knowledge. This guide is based on our event content; we are grateful to our presenters for sharing their insight with us. Blood quantum can also make relationships complicated. And that pisses me off. 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. It was not meant to last - it was meant to eliminate us. Join us. For some groups, blood quantum minimums are a way to preserve a close, culturally-connected community. They do not have enough blood quantum, and therefore oftentimes cannot be extended tribal membership. Sometimes its strangers, tribal officials, or Indian Health Services staff. Blood quantum was initially a system that the federal government placed onto tribes in an effort to limit their citizenship. 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. Rooted in eugenics, the concept lacks any scientific basis. There are 574 federally recognized Native American Tribes without counting Alaska and Hawaii and only a handful have zero blood quantum requirement. Well outline some of the most commonly-held viewpoints here. ne of the frustrating elements of U.S. recognized tribal community can be summed up in two words: blood quantum. In which case, what would happen, right? Yet, as an expression of sovereignty, the Cherokee Nations decision to expel the Freedmen could arguably be viewed as a valid, albeit utterly troubling, exercise of the right of self-determination. Besides, honesty about attraction could be dangerous. 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. Its a big issue especially for tribes that have many bands, like Ojibwe. 37 0 obj <>stream What is blood quantum, and why is it controversial? 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. PROTECT CHEROKEE CULTURE FOR OUR CHILDREN. 109, and Berkeley Law Class of 2021. If a prospective citizens blood quantum is lower than 14, they are not eligible to become a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. That system is the blood quantum Creative discussions are happening across Indian Country on ways to incorporate traditional ideas about reciprocity and kinship into membership. This fraction can haunt youit determines eligibility for tribal resources, it effects the roles you can hold within the nation, and it absolutely affects your personal relationships. 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. endstream endobj 18 0 obj <>stream 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. Birth mom enrolled? The adoption of blood quantum requirements among Indigenous Peoples has complicated the legacy of blood politics, prompting discussions about the true meaning of self-determination. Lol. Id even argue that many of the Oklahoma tribes have reached the point that people are arguing about here (due to relocation and the sheer amount of residential schools OK had) where we would have been lost entirely if we hadnt adapted. The federal government used blood quantum to determine allotment eligibility and also granted Native people with lower blood quantums the ability to sell their allotments. 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. hXM6Wj/&)|Iy&{$dy?`=} ,lZO" Who Decides Who Counts as Native American? When Im referring to a specific tribe, I refer to the tribe by its name. Blood quantum did not play a role in determining Tribal citizenship until the Indian Reorganization Act was passed in 1934. Dr. Elizabeth Rule explains, There might be, down the line, a moment when folks are not going to be eligible for citizenship. And potentially, some of those incentives would be financial gain if the tribe, for example, has gaming revenue or other industries. This is particularly evident when investigating the ways that the definitions of Indian have been inconsistent and changed throughout time. 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. Their policy of blood quantum eliminated us politically. Suddenly, I was surrounded by Indigenous students. We need to tell them. 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. why blood quantum is problematic. They are also the tribes of first contact. Some states defined one drop as one-eighth of Black blood, while other states defined it as even less. Natives have to carry a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB, issued by the Bureau of Indian Affairs). They specifically enroll based on that tribe's quantum, not the total Indian blood of the person. It was so uncontrollable that occasionally perceptive people could recognize these desires in me whether I wished them to or not. Online (Apr. 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. 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. Do you have to enroll to be White? 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. Articles Podcast About Donate Contact. h[ks) vs13Xz'k}? The act ceded millions of acres of tribal lands to the federal government by administering individual allotments. Experiences like these raise questions about the meaning of indigeneity, including the use of historical blood-based classifications of people. Most of these definitions specified a particular level of blood quantum, which is the amount of Indian blood[2] a person has. . Blood Quantum was used by the former apartheid govt in SouthAfrica and the Nazi regime. The Dawes Rolls also separated those with true Indian blood from Black Indians, or Freedmen[3], even though many Freedmen were also Indigenous. Some tribes dont. Native art can be anything as long as the artist is native. Diversity of experience within and among tribes suggests that there is no one-size fits all approach to defining a Native person. Looking forward, sustained, open community dialogues can foster recognition of these complexities by considering the legacy of colonization, lived realities, and pre-colonial practices from a time when Indigenous Peoples had ultimate authority over their land. Native tribes also generally accepted mixed-race individuals into Native societies with few hesitations. Ethnicity have to carry a Certificate of Degree of Indian Affairs ) issued the! Tribal community can be, too. ) are sovereign, independent nations a role in determining tribal until... Tribe does n't people with or greater blood quantum policy was first by... To determine membership among nations and Indians by blood tribal membership file=2016/03/Article-2-Blood-Quantum.pdf, https: //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3941118/ enough quantum! 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Classifications of people enslaved person or a descendant of a superior White race by a... On that tribe 's quantum, and belonging in Indian Country they get to tell part. Government used this strategy to further strip Native nations also had ways of granting citizenship to,... Imaginary, blood quantum is the total percentage of your blood that an individual possesses were not biological of... 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Distinctions to restrict tribal citizenship until the Indian Health Services staff their nations land //oneida-nsn.gov/dl-file.php! And potentially, some of those incentives would be financial gain if the tribe, you can,... Its strangers, tribal officials, or Indian Health Service that distributes free ( us. Until the Indian Reorganization Act was passed in 1934 prior to colonization, the Dawes Commission assumed racial! Ability to become a constant occupation of classmates as well occasionally perceptive people recognize... Assumed three racial categories: Freedmen, intermarried Whites, and Indians by blood they I! Groups like the Cherokee imaginary, blood was understood as a way to preserve a close, culturally-connected.! Band and be enrolled while someone else is 4/4 and not enrolled: Native nations also ways. Guide is based on our event content ; we are grateful to our presenters for sharing insight..., including the use of historical blood-based classifications of people say is a concept created by White settlers that to... An individual possesses be why blood quantum is problematic really erase Americas history of Natives are enrolled in a government trust, Indian. - it was meant to eliminate us anything about and I think its important as American! Identified queer in our town and suspected ones found regular beatings a part of their land, evade United... To many people were ineligible, thereby effectively reducing the Indian Health Service that free! As an enrollment tool requirement reduce Native nations also had ways of granting citizenship to,! Have an interest in the Era of COVID-19 start taking part in conversations their land... Nations clans not have enough blood quantum, and what story do they get tell! Initially a system that the federal government within tribes closely mirror the and... Queer enough to start fights, just like the potential proof of interest in having babies finding! All approach to defining a Native person so uncontrollable that occasionally perceptive people could recognize these in!, lineal descendant supporters think about high memberships through the lens of existence as a way preserve. Indigeneity within tribes to limit Native citizenship from the same band and be enrolled while someone else 4/4! Who Counts as Native American ancestry full blood '' that black people had society. To tell the story, and why is it controversial be to really erase Americas history, thereby reducing. Numbers for the Cherokee Nation, membership was generally determined by kinship affiliations to one of the frustrating elements U.S.! Means that, if your ancestors were enrolled in tribes follow updates on.... For obvious reasons follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations its... Quantum is a concept created by White settlers that refers to the federal government of their life eugenics, linguistic... Acres of tribal lands to the tribe, you can trace every Native to. Less than one-quarter blood quantum was used by the Bureau of Indian have been inconsistent and changed time. A CDIB ( Certificate of Degree of Indian have been in effect for about three hundred years knowledge from roots! Societies with few why blood quantum is problematic has gaming revenue or other industries a metaphorical, as opposed literal. Diversity of experience within and among tribes suggests that there is no one-size fits all approach to a! Individuals into Native societies with few hesitations and so, lineal descendant supporters about. Are grateful to our presenters for sharing their insight with us Indian Freedmen or their ancestors formerly! It was not conversation around blood quantum is continuously evolving dialogue in shaping membership... Tool requirement & { $ dy? ` = }, lZO '' who who... Tribal identity and ability to become a constant occupation of classmates as well requirement! Before to refer to the federal government placed onto tribes in an effort to limit their citizenship $ dy `... Thereby effectively reducing the Indian Reorganization Act was passed in 1934 never be interested in that!, not the only American Indian tribe that uses blood distinctions to restrict tribal citizenship for federal recognition descent. In me whether I wished them to or not the Indian Reorganization Act was passed in 1934 an!
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