Indigenous Governance Database
enrollment
Carlos Hisa and Esequiel (Zeke) Garcia: Ysleta del Sur Pueblo: Redefining Citizenship
Carlos Hisa and Esequiel (Zeke) Garcia from Ysleta del Sur Pueblo (YDSP) provide an overview of the approach that YDSP is following as it works to redefine its criteria for citizenship through community-based decision-making. They also share the negative impacts that adherence to blood quantum as…
Sharon Day, Shawn Frank and Deborah Locke: Disenrollment (Q&A)
Panelists Sharon Day, Shawn Frank, and Deborah Locke field questions from the audience and a few participants offer their closing thoughts on the question of tribal citizenship and identity. This video resource is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Bush…
Richard Luarkie: The Pueblo of Laguna: A Constitutional History
In this informative interview with NNI's Ian Record, Laguna Governor Richard Luarkie provides a detailed overview of what prompted the Pueblo of Laguna to first develop a written constitution in 1908, and what led it to amend the constitution on numerous occasions in the century since. He also…
Bethany Berger: Citizenship: Culture, Language and Law
University of Connecticut Law Professor Bethany Berger provides a brief history of the federal policies that have negatively impacted the ways that Native nations define and enforce their criteria for citizenship historically through to the present day. This video resource is featured on the…
Jill Doerfler and Matthew Fletcher: Defining Citizenship: Blood Quantum vs. Descendancy (Q&A)
Panelists Jill Doerfler and Matthew Fletcher fields questions from the audience, and several participants offer their heartfelt perspectives on the complicated cultural and social dynamics surrounding citizenship and identity in their respective Native nations and communities. This video resource…
Constitutional Reform: A Wrap-Up Discussion (Q&A)
NNI "Tribal Constitutions" seminar presenters, panelists and participants Robert Breaker, Julia Coates, Frank Ettawageshik, Miriam Jorgensen, Gwen Phillips, Ian Record, Melissa L. Tatum and Joan Timeche field questions from the audience about separations of powers, citizenship, blood quantum and…
Oglala Sioux Tribe to issue IDs at tournament
For the first time in its history the Oglala Sioux Tribe will bring its enrollment office to the public. During this year’s Lakota Nation Invitational in Rapid City the tribe will have a booth set up to issue tribal IDs to enrolled members who may not have the opportunity to travel to Pine Ridge to…
Tribe looking to increase enrollment
Under the direction of the appointed members of the Tribal Enrollment Committee – Peridot District Representatives Lula T. Dillon and Aurelia Rogers, Gilson Wash District Representatives Geraldine Kitcheyan and Henrietta Henry, Seven Mile Wash District Representatives Marthalene Polk and Lois R.…
Blood Quantum: A complicated system that determines tribal membership threatens the future of American Indians
Ryan Padraza Comes Last is a full-blooded Indian, Sioux and Cheyenne on his father's side and Assiniboine on his mother's. He will soon receive his Lakota name: "A Rope." (Comes Last raises rodeo horses and always has a rope in his right hand. He likes to call Ryan his "right-hand man.") But…
Northern Ute Tribal Enrollment May Rise, Pending Election Could Lower Blood Quantum
A tribal nation with what could be North America’s strictest enrollment criteria may soon decide on more flexible rules that might, if adopted, increase the tribe’s current 3,000-plus membership. A pending election could lower the 5/8 Ute Indian blood degree requirement for membership in the Ute…
Growth a Source of Pride - And Strain - At Some Northwest Tribes
The membership rolls at some Northwest tribes are swelling much faster than growth in the general population. Some of that increase is due to a high birth rate among American Indians. Also, rising prosperity from casinos and other businesses is luring Native Americans back into the fold. However,…
Tribal Enrollment And Blood Quantum
Every tribe has its own rules for membership. Some tribes include lineal descent — proof that you descend from a recognized tribal member — while others have a blood quantum requirement that requires members possess a certain percentage of tribal blood. On White Earth, researchers found that the…
Tribal Enrollment
Tribes have the right to determine their own membership. These criteria for enrollment vary from tribe to tribe. In the Midwest, the criteria are based on descendancy, that is, descent from an individual on a particular roll, as well as, in some cases, blood quantum and/or residency of the…
Indoodem: Who is a Red Lake Ojibwe, the Making of the Red Lake Constitution
Produced by the Red Lake Constitution Reform Committee, "Indoodem" provides Red Lake Nation citizens and others with information on clan systems and enrollment in the Red Lake Nation. The film documents the origins of blood quantum and traditional ways of knowing who was a part of the community.
Truth To Tell: Community Connections - White Earth Constitutional Forum Part I
In collaboration with production partner KKWE/Niijii Radio, TruthToTell and CivicMedia/Minnesota traveled west on August 14, 2013, to the White Earth Reservation to air/televise the seventh in our series of LIVE Community Connections forums on critical Minnesota issues. Convened at White Earth's…
Members Only? Designing Citizenship Requirements for Indian Nations
Indian nations' constitutional reform efforts encounter some of their most paralyzing conflicts over criteria for membership. Three years ago, I initiated a Tribal Legal Development Clinic at UCLA, whose purpose has been to assist Indian nations in building their legal infrastructures. This Clinic…
Understanding the history of tribal enrollment
It's difficult to talk about tribal enrollment without talking about Indian identity. The two issues have become snarled in the twentieth century as the United States government has inserted itself more and more into the internal affairs of Indian nations. Ask who is Indian, and you will get…
Navajo Cultural Identity: What can the Navajo Nation bring to the American Indian Identity Discussion Table?
American Indian identity in the twenty-ï¬rst century has become an engaging topic. Recently, discussions on Ward Churchill’s racial background became a “hotbed†issue on the national scene. A few Native nations, such as the Pechanga and Isleta Pueblo, have disenrolled members. Scholars such…
What is Sustain Oneida?
The population of the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin will probably decline within the next 10 years. The Tribe currently faces a diminishing population with an enrollment criteria of 1/4 Oneida blood...
What is Blood Quantum?
This article will explore the history of using blood quantum to categorize American Indian identity. The measuring of blood and the concept of 'Indianness' is a complex and difficult subject...