While
passing laws requiring that an applicant for tribe membership have at
least some blood relation to the tribe in question may help assure
that the tribe’s genetic legacy be secured, to pass such laws does
not support a tribe’s likelihood to remain united, and in fact
these laws may serve to undermine regard for a tribe, but also to
diminish its cohesiveness on the basis of culture.
On one hand, the
U.S. federal government has at least some history of allowing Native
American tribes to decide for themselves which criteria to use in
order to create a basis upon which to choose to either reject or
confirm an applicant’s membership in the tribe, and therefore the
U.S. should allow any decisions concerning Cherokee Nation membership
criteria made by that tribe’s Supreme Court to stand without
interference.
Aside
from this fact, although blood quantum laws were originally created
by white men in Virginia and served to oppress Natives, their use as
a criterion for allowing membership has been accepted by many tribes
as a provision of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Therefore,
it should be a right of Native American tribes to require applicants
to prove an actual genetic relationship before granting them
membership.
However,
since today there are so many members in the various tribes who have
very little Indian blood and are only members based on the fact of
the presence of that “single drop,” it would be easy for a
tribe’s government to create a line in the sand with regard to
acceptance, and also very controversial, as some people may consider
this discrimination and the denial of civil rights on the basis of
ethnicity and race.
The
weakening of cohesion over the past decades has left many Indians
displaced and without connections to their relatives, tribes, and
customs. Some of those with Native blood seek to re-connect to their
cultures through tribal education, including learning native
languages, and also through the formation of pan-Indian identity. Due
to this situation, the need for individuals to re-discover Indian
identity and to establish relationships to the cultures more than to
ethnic or racial similarity is likely more crucial to the survival of
Indian ideas and customs than any law requiring that a person be
ethnically or racially Indian.
Originally written in November 2009 as a college essay
Originally Published on January 3rd, 2014
For
more entries on civil rights, slavery, segregation, and
discrimination, please
visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2011/06/title-ii-of-civil-rights-act-of-1964.html
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2011/06/title-ii-of-civil-rights-act-of-1964.html
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/sen-cliven-bundy-harry-reid-owes-feds.html
For
more entries on the interior and tribal relations please
visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/personal-and-political-connotations-of.html
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/personal-and-political-connotations-of.html
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