TIM GIAGO COLUMN: Who is a Native and who is not?
BY TIM GIAGO (NANWICA KCIJI) / Lakota Media Inc.
http://www.journalstar.com/native.php?story_id=4256

When a tribe in Kansas adopts non-Natives in order to acquire their land to
construct a casino upon, it raises a number of questions.

Who is a Native and who is not has been a question the bureaucracy has kicked
from pillar to post for more than 100 years. The Bureau of Indian Affairs
believes it has finally found the answer.

Let us make a distinction here before we proceed. The BIA has almost always used
a blood degree of one-fourth when determining the allocation of money for
health, education, housing, land disputes, etc. This determination of who is
Native clearly comes under the umbrella of funds disbursed by this federal
agency. However, if a person is less than one-fourth blood degree but can prove
membership in a federally recognized tribe, the one-fourth standard is often
waived.

Federally recognized Native tribes set their own blood quantum standards in
determining who is a member of their tribe. Some tribes set the blood quantum at
one-fourth or more, just as the BIA does, and others like the Ute Tribe of Utah
set their degree at one-half or more.

Other tribes use lineage to determine membership. This method of determining
tribal membership eliminates a selection by blood quantum. If an applicant
attempts to enroll, he or she must show a direct line of descent from an
enrolled tribal member. A tribal enrollment committee then reviews this
application and if lineage can be correctly ascertained, that individual
qualifies for tribal membership.

This method is not as easy as it appears. The enrollment committee considers
many factors. Most of the members of the committee are elders who have direct
knowledge of tribal members and their family histories. It is impossible for any
outsider to sneak through an application because the elders know every tribal
member and their families.

However, because many Natives marry outside of their race, an applicant often
has less than one-fourth degree of Native blood. But, as I said, if they can
prove direct lineage to an enrolled tribal member, they can qualify for
membership in the tribe.

It is the legal and historical right of every Native nation to determine who is
a member and who is not. That choice lies in the selection methods used by each
individual Native tribe.

Duane Bird Bear, chief of the BIA's tribal government services division, said
that the bureau's work is a matter of clarifying and streamlining policies. The
Indian Health Service did the same thing several years ago when it set standards
for who can use the Native hospitals. It effectively eliminated anyone who could
not prove membership in a Native tribe. This included non-Natives married to
Natives except in the case of pregnancies. The Indian Health Service determined
that the unborn baby, though carried in the womb of a white woman, was Native
and therefore entitled to its services. A hue and cry went up against the Indian
Health Service when they took this route, but because of the drastic federal
funding cutbacks to the Native hospitals, many legally enrolled tribal members
believed the right decision had been made. They felt that so many non-Natives
were getting health care that it jeopardized their access to the same services.

In the past 10 years most Native nations have contracted many of the services
originally provided by the BIA. I see the main collision between the bureau and
the tribes coming if the bureau attempts to set blood quantum standards directly
opposed to the standards set by the tribe itself. The bureau has the legal right
to set its own standards for the services it provides, but it crosses a thin
line when it attempts to impose those same standards on the sovereign Native
nations.

Here we cross another thin line. Many of the larger tribes signed treaties with
the U.S. government. In exchange for giving up millions of acres of land the
government agreed to provide certain services to the tribes in perpetuity. These
treaty agreements usually included health care, education and the funds to
operate a tribal government. In this instance the treaties clearly outlined
certain treaty rights to compensate the tribes for the loss of their land. This
is not a case of generosity or charity by the United States, but the
continuation and the fulfillment of legal and binding treaties.

Let me emphasize this point. What the treaty tribes receive from the federal
government cannot be construed as a handout or welfare money. It is the
fulfillment of a treaty obligation. The United States became the wealthiest
nation in the world off of the land surrendered to it by the Native nations
through treaty agreements.

The ``streamlining policies'' now undertaken by the BIA should never be done
arbitrarily. There should be no rush to judgment. Input from every treaty tribe
in America should be considered. The major consideration by the BIA should be a
careful evaluation of the recommendations submitted by the treaty tribes.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs was initially established to carry out the decrees
established by the treaties signed into law between the United States government
and the Native nations. In the early years the bureau became the all-knowing,
all-seeing, paternalistic office largely responsible for holding the Native
people back. The bureau has evolved considerably since those days and it must
not backslide.

Before setting up new guidelines for blood quantum the directors of the BIA
should return to the objectives originally intended for its formulation; to
carry out the goals set down in the treaties between the United States and the
Native nations. Who is an Native and who is not must always be left in the hands
of the leaders of the federally recognized treaty tribes.

Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is editor and publisher of the weekly Lakota
Journal. He is author of ``The Aboriginal Sin'' and ``Notes from Indian
Country'' volumes I and II.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
[If you got here from frontpage Native News Online, click here to return:
http://216.97.43.231/ ]
COMMENTS?
http://nativenewsonline.org/Guestbook/guestbook.cgi
Escribe archives
http://escribe.com/culture/native_news/
http://207.126.116.12/culture/native_news/
Reprinted under the Fair Use http://nativenewsonline.org/fairuse.htm
<<<<<>>>>>
Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
http://nativenewsonline.org/
Native News Online
a Service of Barefoot Connection

FREE LEONARD PELTIER!! "YOU ~ARE~ THE MESSAGE"