Blood quantum laws

Blood Quantum Laws is an umbrella term that describes legislation enacted to define membership in Native American groups. "Blood quantum" refers to attempts to calculate the degree of racial inheritance for a given individual. Any discussion of "blood quantum" must be understood within its metaphorical context. A "quantum" of race, heritage or membership (all abstract concepts) cannot be physically ascertained. This requires that "blood quantum" be understood as a historical, legal, cultural or sociological term of convenience that has often been mistakenly accorded a "concrete" reality. For example, one may "de-concretize" the term by asking "Can blood quantum be raised or lowered via transfusion?" or "If a 200 pound man is 1/2 Navajo and 1/4 Cherokee and 1/4 Shoshone does that also make him 100 pounds Navajo and 50 pounds Cherokee and 50 pounds Shoshone?" As a metaphor rather than a concrete reality, blood quantum of a group can be and has been raised or lowered depending on the consensus of the tribe or group. This most often takes the form of a "historical correction" due to inaccurate techniques of documentation. The debates over the Wheeler Howard act are illustrative and indicate an intent to use "blood quantum" as a device to "create fewer Indians" (Congressional Record Wheeler Howard Act Debate)

The Dawes Act

The Dawes Act, also known as the General Allotment Act, was part of a federal initiative from 1887 to 1934 to "civilize" the Indians by forcing them into Western cultural and legal practices. The strategy of this Act was to take lands held in common by tribes as reservations and break them up into individually-owned parcels. Parcels of land were given to individuals who could prove that they were members of the tribe who owned the land, and the remainder was often opened for white settlement. Tribes set their own membership requirements, and many used blood quantum as part of the necessary qualification.

Implementation

Many Indian tribes continue to employ blood quantum in their own current tribal laws to determine who is eligible for membership or citizenship in the tribe or Native American nation. These often require a minimum degree of blood relationship and often an ancestor listed in a specific tribal census from the late 1800s or early 1900s. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina, for example, require an ancestor listed in the 1924 Baker census and a minimum of 1/16 Cherokee blood inherited from their ancestor(s) on that roll. Meanwhile the Western Cherokee require applicants to descend from an ancestor in the 1906 Dawes roll (direct lineal ancestry), but impose no minimum blood quantum requirement. The Ute require a 5/8 blood quantum, the highest requirement of any U.S. tribe, while the Miccosukee of Florida, the Mississippi Choctaw and the St. Croix Chippewa of Wisconsin all require 1/2 "tribal blood quantum". At the other end of the scale, the Mashantucket Pequot of Connecticut and the Sac and Fox of Oklahoma both require 1/16, whereas the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon require a combined minimum of 1/16 from any of a list of several Oregon indigenous peoples. The Navajo Nation requires a 1/4 blood quantum.

Some tribes require an unspecified amount of Indian ancestry (known as "lineal descendancy"), while others yet require a specified degree of Indian ancestry but an unspecified share of ancestry from the ancestral tribe or tribes from which the modern tribal entity is derived. Certain modern tribes are actually composed of confederations of original tribal peoples joined into a single modern ethno-political entity. There are also tribes that require a minimum blood degree only for tribal members born "off" (i.e. outside) the nominal reservation, comparable to the legal principles of "Jus soli" and "Jus sanguinis" in the nationality laws of modern sovereign states. By far the most common blood quantum requirement among modern American Indian tribes today is either 1/4 blood requirement or co-called lineal descendancy.

The following tribes require 1/2 degree blood quantum for membership:

*Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida
*Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Mississippi
*St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin

The following tribes require 1/8 degree blood quantum for membership:

*Apache Tribe of Oklahoma
*Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Reservation, Oregon
*Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma
*Karuk Tribe of California
*Muckleshoot Indian Tribe of the Muckleshoot Reservation, Washington
*Northwestern Band of Shoshoni Nation of Utah (Washakie)
*Sac & Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska
*Squaxin Island Tribe of the Squaxin Island Reservation, Washington
*Suquamish Indian Tribe of the Port Madison Reservation, Washington
*Upper Skagit Indian Tribe of Washington
*Wichita and Affiliated Tribes (Wichita, Keechi, Waco & Tawakonie), Oklahoma

The following tribes require 1/16 degree blood quantum for membership:

*Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon
*Mashantucket Pequot Tribe of Connecticut
*Sac & Fox Nation, Oklahoma

The following tribe requires 1/32 degree blood quantum for membership:

*Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina

Issues

Critics of the laws say they have been used to discriminate against Blacks and Native Americans and deny them their civil rights as well as pre-empt the right of tribes to determine themselves who is and who is not a member. They also point out that as blood quantums can never increase from generation to generation but can only stay the same or decrease, the eventual result could be the extinction of American Indian peoples as legally-defined groups; in effect, some critics argue, these laws are intended to effect the disappearance of Native Americans as a race. Contemporary defenders point out that U.S. tribes set their own rules to determine tribal membership, and that they can decide on their own whether or not to employ blood quantum. Groups such as the Cherokee Freedman and others claim they are denied tribal rights based on the blood quantum laws. The base rolls recorded blacks simply as blacks despite the fact that they had been made members of the tribe and even when they may have had some degree of Indian blood.

Federal blood quantum laws continue to affect benefits that some individuals of Indian descent receive from the Federal government, independent of tribal law. For example, in 1985, the US Congress passed the "Quarter Blood Amendment Act" to determine which Indian students were eligible for Indian education programs and tuition-free attendance at the Bureau of Indian Affairs or contract schools. This must be verified by obtaining a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood which is sometimes also used for tribal determinations.

Issues of blood quantum become more relevant with the modern development of lucrative Native American enterprises such as oil fields and casinos. The question of who shares in the proceeds, and in what amount, has been a contentious issue in many nations and tribes.

Because many Native American tribes currently base tribal membership on blood quantum, blood quantum plays a significant role in Native American religious freedom. The eagle feather law, Title 50 Part 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations stipulates that only members of federally recognized tribes are eligible to obtain permits for eagle feathers, which are religious objects to many Native Americans. Individuals without the mandatory blood quantum cannot become enrolled tribal members or obtain permits for eagle feathers for religious use.

Fraud

American Indigenous Tribes who have much lower blood quantum requirements find themselves in a type of gray area when it comes to who is pronouced American Indian. Unfortunately many of these tribes are currently suffering from individuals who intentionally false identify themselves as Native American.

These reasons are usually to fraudulently attain Federal and Tribal money and/or the incentives which are provided in being a registered member of a Federally recognized tribe. These crimes effectively reduce the Economic capital and momentum these American Indian and Alaska Native tribes need to develop and improve their Education, Health, and Administrative Infrastructures. [http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=9252]

External links

* [http://www.charkoosta.com/2007_12_13/tribal_enrollment.html Indian by identity: a look inside tribal enrollment]
* [http://www.weyanoke.org/jdf-BloodQuantum.html Blood Quantum: A Relic Of Racism And Termination]
* [http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=955032 A Legal History of Blood Quantum in Federal Indian Law to 1935]
* [http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1138302 The Origins, Current Status, and Future Prospects of Blood Quantum as the Definition of Membership in the Navajo Nation]
* [http://www.allthingscherokee.com/articles_gene_040101.html Blood Quantum — Why It Matters, and Why It Shouldn't]