membership criteria

Tribal Enrollment And Blood Quantum

Producer
Native America Calling
Year

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 Nation would see dramatically diminished enrollment numbers in the future if they continued using blood quantum as a requirement for membership. In 2013, White Earth citizens voted to change tribal enrollment from blood quantum to lineal descent. The change hasn’t yet gone into effect, and questions linger about how enrollment will impact the tribe’s connection to the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, as well as its federal status. What are the benefits and drawbacks of basing tribal enrollment on blood quantum? Would you like to see your tribe change enrollment policy to blood quantum or lineal descent? If your tribe uses blood quantum, do you think your tribe will exist 100 years from now?

Guests:

Robert A. Williams Jr. (Lumbee) — the E. Thomas Sullivan Professor of Law and American Indian Studies and the Faculty Co-chair Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program at the University of Arizona Dr.

Jill Doerfler (White Earth) - Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

"Tribal Enrollment And Blood Quantum." Native America Calling. May 6, 2015. Audio. (http://www.nativeamericacalling.com/wednesday-may-6-2015-tribal..., accessed May 11, 2015)

Tribal Enrollment

Producer
The Newberry
Year

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 applicant or his/her parents. Most tribes also have constitutional provisions for adoption of members. Individuals who are enrolled in a particular tribe have rights that include hunting, fishing, and gathering on tribal land (or in some cases off-reservation), as well as per capita payments if the tribe distributes income from court cases or businesses. Other benefits include preferential hiring for tribal jobs, entitlement to certain services, the right to vote and run for tribal office, use of tribal land, and preferential selection for tribal housing.

Citation

The Newberry. "Tribal Enrollment." Indians of the Midwest. McNickle Center at the Newberry Library. Chicago, Illinois. Video. (http://publications.newberry.org/indiansofthemidwest/identities/legal-id..., accessed October 30, 2013)

Redefining Tigua Citizenship

Year

The materials in this informational guide are designed to provide you with important background information ”such as Tigua history, tribal population profiles, and fiscal impacts” related to upcoming membership criteria changes. Project Tiwahu is an Ysleta del Sur Pueblo-wide initiative to reclaim its membership determination, thus bringing the tribe into an era of true self-governance...

Native Nations
Citation

Ysleta del Sur Pueblo. "Redefining Tigua Citizenship." Project Tiwahu Informational Guide. Ysleta del Sur Pueblo. Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, Texas. 2014. Guide. (https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/hpaied/files/projecttiwahu-final.pdf?m=1639579190, accessed June 7, 2023)

Navajo Cultural Identity: What can the Navajo Nation bring to the American Indian Identity Discussion Table?

Author
Year

American Indian identity in the twenty-first 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 as Circe Sturm, in Blood Politics: Race, Culture, and Identity in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and Eva Marie Garroutte, in Real Indians: Identity and Survival of Native America, have examined American Indian identity. More attention is being devoted to understanding the implications of racial identity in Native nations. What have we learned from these studies? We have learned that an imposed enrollment system has impacted Native nations...

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Lee, Lloyd L. "Navajo Cultural Identity: What can the Navajo Nation bring to the American Indian Identity Discussion Table?" Wicazo Sa Review. Fall 2006. Paper. (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/206347, accessed November 8, 2013) 

What is Sustain Oneida?

Year

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...

Citation

Oneida Trust and Enrollment Committee. "What is Sustain Oneida?" Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin. Oneida, Wisconsin. May 30, 2013. Article. (https://oneida-nsn.gov/dl-file.php?file=2016/03/Article-1-Sustain-Oneida.pdf, accessed November 6, 2013)

What is Blood Quantum?

Year

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...

Resource Type
Citation

Oneida Trust and Enrollment Committee. "What is Blood Quantum?" Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin. Oneida, Wisconsin. July 27, 2013. Article. (https://oneida-nsn.gov/dl-file.php?file=2016/03/Article-2-Blood-Quantum.pdf, accessed November 6, 2013)

Members Only? Designing Citizenship Requirements for Indian Nations

Year

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 has provided free consulting and drafting services to Indian nations seeking to establish or modify tribal constitutions, codes, or justice systems. As the Clinic embarked on several constitution drafting and revision projects, controversies over membership -- or citizenship as we preferred to call it -- readily and regularly went from negotiable differences among tribal participants to heated stalemate or irresolvable conundrum...

Resource Type
Citation

Goldberg, Carole. "Members Only? Designing Citizenship Requirements for Indian Nations." University of Kansas Law Review. Volume 50. 2001, 2002. Paper. (http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/ukalr50&div=21&g_sen..., accessed October 30, 2013)

Race and American Indian Tribal Nationhood

Year

This article bridges the gap between the perception and reality of American Indian tribal nation citizenship. The United States and federal Indian law encouraged, and in many instances mandated, Indian nations to adopt race-based tribal citizenship criteria. Even in the rare circumstance where an Indian nation chose for itself whether or not to adopt a race-based citizenship rule, the nation invariably did, with the belief and expectationthat Indian nations had no choice. In fact, Indian nations do have a choice.

Resource Type
Citation

Fletcher, Matthew L.M. "Race and American Indian Tribal Nationhood." Wyoming Law Review. Volume 11, Number 2. 2011. Paper. (https://scholarship.law.uwyo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1253&context=wlr, accessed June 7, 2023)