citizen rights

Hot Topics in Tribal Governance: Citizenship + Blood Quantum

Producer
Native Nations Institute
Year

As the Director of the Oneida Nation's Trust Enrollment Department, Doxtator used the skills he honed as a financial analyst to examine the current state of the nation's enrollment criteria and illustrate what that meant for the future of the nation. Since Oneida was still relying on Blood Quantum (BQ) to determine enrollment eligibility, the future of the nation's enrollment numbers looked grim. The unfortunate reality was that, if nothing was done to amend the nation's enrollment criteria, it would mean the extinction of the Oneida Nation in just a few generations.

In this presentation during the Native Nations Institute's 2022 Remaking Tribal Constitutions Seminar, Doxtator uses population pyramids and one very compelling animation to explain the issue with BQ as a determinant for enrollment -- a lesson that could any Native nations wrestling with questions about BQ and enrollment.

 

Resource Type
Citation

Doxtator, Keith. "Hot Topics in Tribal Governance: Citizenship + Blood Quantum." September 19, 2023. Presentation. Native Nations Institute.

Transcripts for all videos are available by request. Please email us: nni@arizona.edu.

The Blood Line: Racialized Boundary Making and Citizenship among Native Nations

Year

Blood informs a central racial ideology in the United States that has historically been used to racialize many different groups. American Indians (AIs) are the only population in the United States for whom the racial logic of blood remains codified as a means of conferring collective belonging. This article explores how AI blood quantum persists as both a race-making and nation-making instrument. I ask two research questions: How does blood quantum persist as a metric of tribal citizenship? Are tribal citizenship criteria connected to contemporary demographic, geographic, political, and economic forces? I first extend racial formation theory to describe blood quantum as a “racial project” in its use to both construct tribal identities in explicitly racial ways and determine access to political, social, and material resources. I also consider how the sovereign right of Native nations to confer tribal citizenship is evident in the observed variation among citizenship rules. Using data from more than 80 percent of AI Native nations in the contiguous United States, I employ a multinomial regression model to evaluate tribal citizenship variation. I have two central findings: (1) although tribal citizenship criteria are starting to depart from the racializing policies of the settler-colonial state, blood quantum thresholds remain particularly durable; and (2) variation in tribal citizenship criteria is meaningful by geographic region, tribal governance status, and Indian gaming. Against a backdrop of growing racial diversity in the United States, I discuss implications of the blood line on tribal citizenship boundaries and tribal sovereignty.

 
Resource Type
Citation

Rodriguez-Lonebear, Desi. “The Blood Line: Racialized Boundary Making and Citizenship among Native Nations.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, vol. 7, no. 4, Oct. 2021, pp. 527–542, doi:10.1177/2332649220981589.

Indigenous Data Sovereignty: The CARE Principles and the Biocultural Labels Initiative

Year

 

The NYU Alliance for Public Interest Technology Alliance is a dynamic and multidisciplinary group of NYU faculty who are experts on the responsible and ethical creation, use and governance of technology in society. The Alliance is a provostial initiative that connects numerous NYU hubs and initiatives to create productive synergies across areas and interests related to public interest technology (PIT) and the University’s research, teaching, and commitment to civic engagement. The Alliance leverages these connections to support PIT students and graduates, to assess and evaluate their training and career trajectories, support new interdisciplinary PIT research, develop pipelines for diverse students doing PIT work, recognize faculty for PIT work, build new national collaborations with academic and non-academic institutions, and develop an international network of partner institutions.

This presentation by Jane Anderson, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts and Science, and Stephanie Russo Carroll, Assistant Professor, Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy; Associate Director, Native Nations Institute at the University of Arizona, was a part of the Launch of the NYU Alliance for Public Interest Technology event on February 6, 2020 at NYU.

What Makes Someone American Indian?

Producer
National Public Radio
Year

Who is Native American? It's a complicated question that has tripped up, among others, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. The Democratic presidential hopeful recently apologized for identifying American Indian as her race more than 30 years ago. It was around that time that the U.S. census saw a surge of people identifying as American Indian. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang explains why.

Resource Type
Citation

Lo Wang, Hansi. What Makes Someone American Indian? National Public Radio. February 17, 2019. Retreived from https://www.npr.org/2019/02/17/695536896/what-makes-s... February 21, 2019.

Miawpukek: Success Through Citizen Engagement

Producer
National Centre for First Nations Governance
Year

"We do have pride in ourselves." Miawpukek citizens talk about the importance of engaging citizens to overcome challenges and build a strong community.

Native Nations
Citation

"Miawpukek: Success Through Citizen Engagement." Bear Image Productions. National Centre for First Nations Governance. Canada. 2010. Film. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfabk4Pi034&feature=plcp, accessed September 18, 2012).

White Earth Nation Constitutional Reform Workbook

Year

The core purpose of this Constitution is to take action and directly express, through that action, native cultural sovereignty. This workbook is designed to help the citizens of the White Earth Nation to understand their constitution. Through this effort and through your understanding of the Constitution, you will decide whether to approve or reject this constitution...

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

White Earth Nation. "White Earth Nation Constitutional Reform Workbook." The Education Team of the White Earth Constitutional Reform Project. 2013. Workbook. (http://media.wix.com/ugd/b1366f_dce1b8c50c084886b02799250f252ca2.pdf, accessed February 12, 2024)