Copyright © 2002 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

When a tribe in Kansas adopts non-Natives in order to acquire their land to construct a casino upon, it raises a number of questions.

Who is a Native and who is not has been a question the bureaucracy has kicked from pillar to post for more than 100 years. The Bureau of Indian Affairs believes it has finally found the answer.

Let us make a distinction here before we proceed. The BIA has almost always used a blood degree of one-fourth when determining the allocation of money for health, education, housing, land disputes, etc. This determination of who is Native clearly comes under the umbrella of funds disbursed by this federal agency. However, if a person is less than one-fourth blood degree but can prove membership in a federally recognized tribe, the one-fourth standard is often waived.

Federally recognized Native tribes set their own blood quantum standards in determining who is a member of their tribe. Some tribes set the blood quantum at one-fourth or more, just as the BIA does, and others like the Ute Tribe of Utah set their degree at one-half or more.

Other tribes use lineage to determine membership. This method of determining tribal membership eliminates a selection by blood quantum. If an applicant attempts to enroll, he or she must show a direct line of descent from an enrolled tribal member. A tribal enrollment committee then reviews this application and if lineage can be correctly ascertained, that individual qualifies for tribal membership.

This method is not as easy as it appears. The enrollment committee considers many factors. Most of the members of the committee are elders who have direct knowledge of tribal members and their family histories. It is impossible for any outsider to sneak through an application because the elders know every tribal member and their families.

However, because many Natives marry outside of their race, an applicant often has less than one-fourth degree of Native blood. But, as I said, if they can prove direct lineage to an enrolled tribal member, they can qualify for membership in the tribe.

It is the legal and historical right of every Native nation to determine who is a member and who is not. That choice lies in the selection methods used by each individual Native tribe.

Duane Bird Bear, chief of the BIA's tribal government services division, said that the bureau's work is a matter of clarifying and streamlining policies. The Indian Health Service did the same thing several years ago when it set standards for who can use the Native hospitals. It effectively eliminated anyone who could not prove membership in a Native tribe. This included non-Natives married to Natives except in the case of pregnancies. The Indian Health Service determined that the unborn baby, though carried in the womb of a white woman, was Native and therefore entitled to its services. A hue and cry went up against the Indian Health Service when they took this route, but because of the drastic federal funding cutbacks to the Native hospitals, many legally enrolled tribal members believed the right decision had been made. They felt that so many non-Natives were getting health care that it jeopardized their access to the same services.

In the past 10 years most Native nations have contracted many of the services originally provided by the BIA. I see the main collision between the bureau and the tribes coming if the bureau attempts to set blood quantum standards directly opposed to the standards set by the tribe itself. The bureau has the legal right to set its own standards for the services it provides, but it crosses a thin line when it attempts to impose those same standards on the sovereign Native nations.

Here we cross another thin line. Many of the larger tribes signed treaties with the U.S. government. In exchange for giving up millions of acres of land the government agreed to provide certain services to the tribes in perpetuity. These treaty agreements usually included health care, education and the funds to operate a tribal government. In this instance the treaties clearly outlined certain treaty rights to compensate the tribes for the loss of their land. This is not a case of generosity or charity by the United States, but the continuation and the fulfillment of legal and binding treaties.

Let me emphasize this point. What the treaty tribes receive from the federal government cannot be construed as a handout or welfare money. It is the fulfillment of a treaty obligation. The United States became the wealthiest nation in the world off of the land surrendered to it by the Native nations through treaty agreements.

The "streamlining policies" now undertaken by the BIA should never be done arbitrarily. There should be no rush to judgment. Input from every treaty tribe in America should be considered. The major consideration by the BIA should be a careful evaluation of the recommendations submitted by the treaty tribes.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs was initially established to carry out the decrees established by the treaties signed into law between the United States government and the Native nations. In the early years the bureau became the all-knowing, all-seeing, paternalistic office largely responsible for holding the Native people back. The bureau has evolved considerably since those days and it must not backslide.

Before setting up new guidelines for blood quantum the directors of the BIA should return to the objectives originally intended for its formulation; to carry out the goals set down in the treaties between the United States and the Native nations. Who is an Native and who is not must always be left in the hands of the leaders of the federally recognized treaty tribes.

Tim Giago, Oglala Lakota, is editor and publisher of the weekly Lakota Journal and author of "The Aboriginal Sin" and "Notes from Indian Country" volumes I and II.