Blood quantum is no measure
“We Shall Remain,” a production from the PBS series, American Experience, to be aired in April, deals with issues facing the Native people of the United States. The one biggest issue not mentioned that should be a major concern of all the First Nations people of this country is blood quantum established by the federal government via the BIA.
We as First Nations people of this Turtle Island are the only culture or race of people that need to have a card or piece of paper to prove who or what we are. We must show our pedigree, much like a dog or horse, only the dog or horse gets better treatment from the great white culture than we do. If we continue with this blood quantum, our race as we know it will no longer exist. Think about it: when your child grows up and has a child, that offspring’s blood quantum will be reduced by one half or one quarter and so on. This will continue with each future generation until there will no longer be a race of Indians because the blood quantum has gotten so low or has disappeared altogether, and then the great white culture will no longer have to honor any treaties they have with us, which they don’t anyway. This is a form of genocide by the federal government against the original people of this Turtle Island and we need to get rid of it. Don’t we at least have that right? Let us unite and fight for our right to exist as a race of people. Let the ruling governments, tribal and federal, know we don’t want or need blood quantum [policies]. – Kenn Mitchell
Cass Lake, Minn. |
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Saturday, Sep 26 at 2:43 PM Anonymous wrote ...
As for the blood quantum issue I like to use the analogy of ketchup and mayonnaise. At the start you both have equal parts and if you keep adding mayo to ketchup pretty soon all you will have is mayo without any hint of any ketchup. Same goes with DNA or genes. You keep intermarrying with white people and pretty soon there won't be a trace of anything remotely Indian in your descendants. All you will have are people with a very limited amount of Indian DNA in their genetic biology.Love Indians!
29714319 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Saturday, Sep 26 at 2:34 PM Craig wrote ...
The biggest myth and lie ever perpetrated in North American folklore, that Indians get everything for free or nothing. This is coming from the very people who organized the greatest land theft in human history. Who really is the welfare recipient? The Indian or the white man? The white man has yet to pay the Indian for all the free land and free resources the Indian has given to the descendants of liars and thieves.
29714109 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Sunday, Aug 16 at 4:00 PM Danny wrote ...
I dont see only bad ,you did read where i said just love indian people of all quantums,remember the old ones stories,medicine,behaviors,dresswear,hunting tactics,tounges,and ceremonies.Thats the part about ndn that i love not the ones that just lay down and just give up .I remember sitting bull would never take the same path because he had such a will to live. I just dont that in todays Redman.
27839739 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Friday, Aug 14 at 3:40 PM cb in nd wrote ...
Danny-it's too bad that you only see the negatives of NDNs. There are many us who are walking down the good path.
27770874 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Monday, Aug 10 at 5:59 AM Danny R wrote ...
There are 1 percent of natives that participate in proffessional sports ,there is millions in this area that could help the tribes but natives would rather smoke drink harm there body get fat and the only excercise indians have these days is the walk to the mailbox to get obamas money
27529196 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Monday, Aug 10 at 5:55 AM Danny R wrote ...
Why is it that i feel the only reason people want to claim indian blood is because they want tribal rights and Obamas money,Why cant you just love indian people of all quatums,remeber the old ones stories,medicine,behaviors,dresswear,hunting tactics,tounges,and ceremonies why cant natives overcome the need for obamas money self sustain,learn adjust and stop giving up so easy.I seen so many natives when i was in the corps enlist to join a group but when it came to sports they would sit.
27529141 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Saturday, Aug 1 at 12:55 AM GetReal wrote ...
Adam, you are right! A whole lot of us do have mixed blood in our families, and if it wasn't for the Europeans most of the loud-mouth activists I know wouldn't be here, hand out and wanting something for nothing because of their Indian blood. It's a matter of having a sense of entitlement for a past history which most of us never lived through or experienced. We make our choices and take life as it comes and roll with the punches, and I believe if a person has Indian blood, they are Indian.
27152691 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Saturday, Aug 1 at 12:41 AM GetReal wrote ...
Might be an unpopular thought, but if we want to keep our Native blood strong, we need to think about who we are coupling with. Genocide is what we do to ourselves and to each other in our own Indian community. It's how tribal enrollment is run and by who wants to determine who is Indian or not (and usually, those being turned away from tribal enrollment are those with more Indian blood than those sitting in the tribal offices/councils). Genocide is letting Non-Natives tell our Native history.
27152462 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Saturday, Jul 11 at 2:51 PM pahchoka wrote ...
Too much of this is driven by the twinks who want to appropriate and in doing so drag their crystals and "channeling" into the mix with their "it's not about the blood it's about the lifestyle". If you don't think so check out the multitude of their sites and the shameless desecration they practice with their rainbow "we are the world" bs. As far as grants and funds -who and what we are shouldn't be put on the auction block.
25857427 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Wednesday, May 27 at 5:50 PM Adam wrote ...
If you are of mixed-blood, then you are hypocritical. Who are you to say being Indian IS about blood, when you are part white? I may only be 3/8ths Indian (most of it Cherokee and Creek), but I know I'm Indian. Have ancestors on the roles and everything. If you feel yo should subscribed to a "white" man's law, go ahead (mind you, you are part white)
22766392 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Monday, May 25 at 11:29 AM Ben little eagle Stephens wrote ...
Reading these Blogs are ok but don't you people know that if we use our heads and keep our marriages strictly aniyanwia them we will keep our haritage as it should be Im of mixed blood but I like a 32nd being a 3/4 blood the other is French.Im cherokee,choctaw,creek,and last but not least shawnee and im very proud of my ancestory and in my Tribe Im pretty highly thought of which im proud that my people have the love and faith in me that they have given me all my life a great honer to me.Wado
22161242 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Thursday, May 21 at 4:17 PM CheroCreek wrote ...
I'm just curious, what's the lowest Blood Quantum (without lineal descent), that a tribe has as a requirment for membership?
21997479 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Saturday, May 16 at 11:27 AM truthforce wrote ...
hey, let's make everyone with zero Indian blood quantum Indians! white folks can par-tee! folks like churchill!
21597099 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Saturday, May 16 at 10:03 AM AK Native wrote ...
Get real, this stuff don't fool me.
21594502 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Friday, May 15 at 11:15 AM truthforce wrote ...
white folks read too much Ward Churchill, poor things
21555049 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Thursday, May 14 at 11:52 AM Louise Thundercloud wrote ...
This blood quantum issue is a cruel leftover from when the europeans took the land from our ancestors. For many of our own people to be using this horrible criteria to limit or to cancel tribal membership, is ludicris. We are being cancelled out by this stupid practice, people who have absolutely no ties to our ancesters are making big bucks because We are divided.
21433192 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Monday, Mar 23 at 5:04 PM karen wrote ...
blood degree is a government policy and so are all other forms of proof of enrollment, all white men created this for their purpose of tribal census for governmental purposes not for tribal purposes. In the year 2009 there are more WHITE PEOPLE enrolled in several tribes because they are not controlled by blood degree. Some are matrilineal descent or patrilineal descent. Neither are correct but criminal in my opinion. To date all the off spring have absolutely no blood line but enrolled.
18434807 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Friday, Feb 27 at 1:45 PM CB in ND wrote ...
Blood quantum will eventually wipe out all Natives....which is what it was intended for.
17218997 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Thursday, Feb 26 at 2:53 PM Brad Cuny wrote ...
Being indian is not a matter of blood, but a way of life.
17157477 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Thursday, Feb 26 at 1:13 AM two feathers wrote ...
The great Spirit will always leave a remnant. There are more urban indians with a higher blood quantum than many of the indians in various tribes. To be fair about this, dna must be used. We will always survive. This is Turtle Island and we were placed by the creator, and we run with the land. We have been here for thousands of years. We have intermixed for hundreds of years. I am native. I am as I am. Why do the recongized tribes not welcome and repatriate their citizens?
17121162 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Thursday, Feb 19 at 3:59 PM Jennifer wrote ...
I am Menominee and some members of my tribe beleive that the only thing that makes you Native is your blood quantum. There are some people who want to severly limit the rights of descendents even though they are still native! I am not asking that they have the equal rights of enrolled members just that they have the rights that they already have, even our elders are against what these people are doing. My son and husband are descendents and our culture and traditions are what make them Native!
16788332 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Tuesday, Feb 17 at 11:33 PM Awiusdi wrote ...
It is our family, people, culture, ceremony, sacred places, language, ancestors, and blood no matter how little that makes us Native.
16678172 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Tuesday, Feb 17 at 7:12 PM Julianne Jennings, RI wrote ...
"In 2000, eight out of ten Americans with Native American ancestry were of mixed blood. It is estimated that by 2100 that figure will rise to nine out of ten" (Mixing Bodies and Beliefs: The Predicament of Tribes, L Scott Gould, 2001 Columbia Law Review). In the 1930s the BIA forced many Native groups to determine its tribal citezenry through a "chain of blood." However, America will have completed its genocidal policies in just a few short years if we continue to use blood laws as membership.
16664822 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Monday, Feb 16 at 3:05 AM Anonymous in Alaska wrote ...
I hadn't really thought about it that way, but really, it is genocide. If the government can't kill off Native people physically, they can just wait until everyone's blood quantum is so low they are no longer considered Native. As someone whose blood quantum is only 1/8th, I've been made to feel guilty for considering myself Native. Why should a number that was decided upon by the government count for more than the community I grew up in or my upbring?
16567817 Inappropriate? Alert Us!Sunday, Feb 15 at 2:48 AM Jody wrote ...
LOL....Sorry for laughing, maybe this is in the governments plans. One way to get rid of us, hum? But no, I feel the same way, my tribe is 1/4, and many more N.W tribes are the same. Many yrs. back I went to a study group and we were discussing this, Eastern tribes or a lot of them had lowered their blood degree. look at it this way,if it was lowered and more children enrolled, that would also mean more funds on grant monies.
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