An Interesting Idea

I wrote a previous post on my views of blood quantum and I had did a little research behind what I was writing and I found a most interesting article from the Missoulian, a newspaper from Missoula Montana concerning the Confederated Tribes of the Salish and Kootenai with regards to their own blood quantum rules:

"Meet Tim Smiley, also known as White Eagle, the name given him by his maternal Indian grandparents. He's the self-proclaimed chief of the Lost Tribe of the Confederated Salish, Kootenai and Pend Oreille Indians of Montana.

''There are at least 13,000 tribal descendants on the Flathead Reservation who are not enrolled. My goal is to enroll every one of them,'' Smiley said in an interview this week.

Smiley, a 50-year-old printing broker by trade, said he is a first-generation descendant of a tribal family. Two of his brothers are enrolled, but because of the luck of the genetic draw, he and two other siblings are not eligible for enrollment. They lack the one-quarter degree ''blood quantum" that the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes' constitution requires, he said.
He said he worked behind the scenes for 13 years trying to get the federally recognized CSKT to allow lineal descendants of tribal members to become members themselves by repealing the blood quantum rule in the constitution.

''We don't believe in blood quantum. Those words are not Indian words,'' Smiley said in an interview Wednesday in Polson, where his newly organized tribe has its headquarters in his modest home on a quiet residential street.

But a constitutional referendum in January to allow lineal descendants was soundly beaten back by enrolled CSKT tribal members, an election, Smiley noted, in which he could not vote. But he accepted the results. He knows that he now will never be a CSKT member, despite his heritage.

So Smiley decided to do the next best thing - start his own tribe of unenrolled descendants.

In an interview this week, he showed a reporter documents supporting his claim, including a printed copy of the original Hellgate Treaty and correspondence between his tribal organization and the federal government that, he hopes, will set in motion the process to gain federal recognition as a tribal entity.

The Lost Tribe of the Salish, Kootenai and Pend d'Oreille would not have any land base in its possession, as does the CSKT government. But Smiley said he is hopeful the federal government would take care of that, granting the lost tribe a homeland once it is recognized as a legitimate entity.

He said he is not challenging the CSKT government in any way; he only wants what is due the unenrolled Indians on the reservation. That means federal recognition that they are truly Indians, not merely "red bones," as unenrolled descendants sometimes refer to themselves." -By JOHN STROMNES of the Missoulian

Original article: Man plans new tribe from ranks of unenrolled

Blood Quantum

I would like to first state that this whole idea of blood quantum is not an indigenous belief. It in part comes from the idea of "killing the indian and saving the man". It was also first implemented during the colonial period (Please see http://www.weyanoke.org/jdf-BloodQuantum.html). It should also be noted that this same practice was used against, yes against, the aborigines of Australia. The Australian scientists felt they could civilize the aborigines by having them intermix with whites and reduce their blood quantum therefor making them less aborigine and more a part of mainstream society in an effort to control aborigine lands and natural resources. A good reference of this practice is shown in the movie The Rabbit Fence.

Some could also claim that this is also the policy of the United States Federal Government. Encourage blood quantum statutes enough and then the whole "Indian Problem" would solve itself when a tribe would literally die out due to lack of eligible enrollees. Once that occurs than the left of land and natural resources would naturally go to the highest bidder while making a quick buck for those in the government and it would of course save money due to the fact that there is no longer a need to fund anything such as health care and housing. I feel this is probably the greatest danger we face as Native people, this kind of mathematical genocide.

In the Pacific Northwest it was of great pride and admiration that someone was of mixed heritage (ex: Nisqually, Yakima, and Klickitat). Coastal people celebrated this intermixing and it helped strengthen bonds we had with neighboring tribes, so it was natural that when others came to this area that intermixing would occur. I personally do not feel that blood quantum has any basis in how I am as a Native person, I do not feel that it makes me any more or less Native than the next Native person.

Many tribes have a blood quantum of 1/4. I find it quite preposterous to believe that somehow after the 1/4 generation, the 1/8 generation if you will, would somehow become completely non-Native, since mathematically speaking, if you divide a positive number in half you will always get a positive number for the answer, never a zero and never a negative number. That "blood" will always be there and the relationship one has to their ancestors will always be there. Just because ones does not carry enough of the legally required "blood" quantum does not mean that they are not related to those ancestors and relations that came before them. I feel it would be akin to saying that one is not related to their actual birth mother just because they did not possess the required blood quantum. Mathematically the whole idea of blood quantum is flawed.

In addition, another point against blood quantum I would like to discuss is the lack of reliable record keeping up until the recent past. Many Native groups did not have a form of written language to keep track of who married who and what they were, yes there was oral tradition in place of that but oral tradition is much like the child's game "Telephone" where one person says a word to another and that word is whispered to the next and so on and so forth until the word reaches the original player where it has henceforth been changed either slightly or dramatically.

I personally feel that when tribes continue to use such archaic determination in their membership that they are missing out on an important and vital group that could otherwise contribute in a positive way. It saddens me that people are cast aside from their own relatives for something in which they have no control over. When one is born, you do not get the convenient option of saying what you want to look like let alone what you want your racial makeup to be.