Blood Quantum Does Not Determine Identity
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Author:
n/a -
Send To:
Bureau of Indian Affairs
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Sponsored By:
Native Americans and all people -
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Native America does not believe that the BIA or any other government organization has the right to determine who is or is not Native American by degree of blood. There is no other group in America that is ever asked who they are by how much blood.
This archaic process began in 1705 in Virginia as a way of denying civil rights to blacks and Indians who at that time were assumed to be inferior races. Many states instituted these laws as a way of deciding who had equal rights to whites and encouraged people of color to relinquish their identities so as to be able to enjoy the rights freely given to others. In this way, it was assumed that Native people would eventually become extinct through assimilation and intermarriage. But this did not, and will not, happen. Native people, even through intermarriage and assimilation will not disappear. Even through intermarriage and assimilation, Native people still hold tightly to their culture and their lineage and must be honored and recognized by their own determination alone, not by degree of blood.
The idea that any government can identify who is Native and who is not by blood quantum is an out dated and unnecessary ideology that is held today because of the governments unwillingness to provide services to people with certain degrees of blood. It is time to do away entirely with this process. Blood quantum does not determine who and what Indians are. Only Native societies and /or communities have the sovereign right to determine who is and who isn't a part of their nation, tribe, clan, or community. Because it has always been an Indian value to be inclusive, high numbers of black Indians, Hispanics and Anglos have been accepted through various means into many Indian communities, in addition to those who are Indian, with mixed ancestry. Every indigenous nation had and has a process for accepting, or adopting outsiders into the fold. From mixed blood Indians through intermarriage, to like-minded people of other races, indigenous communities and nations must determine "who is Indian".
It is no mystery that America has financial obligations to its Indian nations and "certified" Indian people, but these are doled out
intermittently and begrudgingly. Simply put, the fewer indigenous citizens, the less money will be paid out. And the more difficult it is to be legally certified "Indian", the less Indians there will be. Not only is this racist economics in action but it is also blood quantum genocide. By allowing America to determine who is Indian, simply because the government doesnt want to be held accountable, to their word, by meeting their obligations, we allow the US government to legislate Indians out of existence. No other group including African Americans, Asians, Latinos need a card to prove who they are.
With this petition, we are declaring that the only recognition necessary is that of community acceptance and involvement. This is the right of our sovereignty and self determination. As with all other people in all other social programs in this country, the people that should be the recipients of Indian government programs should be determined solely by need, not by blood quantum and not by association with reservations.
Submitted by:
Christine Rose/STAR
www.egroups.com/group/STAR-STAR
Lawrence Sampson/SETAim
www.setaim.com
This archaic process began in 1705 in Virginia as a way of denying civil rights to blacks and Indians who at that time were assumed to be inferior races. Many states instituted these laws as a way of deciding who had equal rights to whites and encouraged people of color to relinquish their identities so as to be able to enjoy the rights freely given to others. In this way, it was assumed that Native people would eventually become extinct through assimilation and intermarriage. But this did not, and will not, happen. Native people, even through intermarriage and assimilation will not disappear. Even through intermarriage and assimilation, Native people still hold tightly to their culture and their lineage and must be honored and recognized by their own determination alone, not by degree of blood.
The idea that any government can identify who is Native and who is not by blood quantum is an out dated and unnecessary ideology that is held today because of the governments unwillingness to provide services to people with certain degrees of blood. It is time to do away entirely with this process. Blood quantum does not determine who and what Indians are. Only Native societies and /or communities have the sovereign right to determine who is and who isn't a part of their nation, tribe, clan, or community. Because it has always been an Indian value to be inclusive, high numbers of black Indians, Hispanics and Anglos have been accepted through various means into many Indian communities, in addition to those who are Indian, with mixed ancestry. Every indigenous nation had and has a process for accepting, or adopting outsiders into the fold. From mixed blood Indians through intermarriage, to like-minded people of other races, indigenous communities and nations must determine "who is Indian".
It is no mystery that America has financial obligations to its Indian nations and "certified" Indian people, but these are doled out
intermittently and begrudgingly. Simply put, the fewer indigenous citizens, the less money will be paid out. And the more difficult it is to be legally certified "Indian", the less Indians there will be. Not only is this racist economics in action but it is also blood quantum genocide. By allowing America to determine who is Indian, simply because the government doesnt want to be held accountable, to their word, by meeting their obligations, we allow the US government to legislate Indians out of existence. No other group including African Americans, Asians, Latinos need a card to prove who they are.
With this petition, we are declaring that the only recognition necessary is that of community acceptance and involvement. This is the right of our sovereignty and self determination. As with all other people in all other social programs in this country, the people that should be the recipients of Indian government programs should be determined solely by need, not by blood quantum and not by association with reservations.
Submitted by:
Christine Rose/STAR
www.egroups.com/group/STAR-STAR
Lawrence Sampson/SETAim
www.setaim.com
6031 Signatures
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Kim T
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Lisa Hill B
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Jacque M
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Lisa J
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- One does not require the white population to measure the amount of Irish or Italian or German blood they may have. When these folks "feel" a conncection to the "old country" they are not asked to prove "how much" blood they have. Why is it then that we have to "prove" our native heritage. To satisfy some one who will nod approvingly when we fall into their little outlined criteria? This stinks.
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Martin V. K
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Melissa C
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Tiffany Boards (Stands Tall W
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- Possbily 1/8 or 1/16 Cherokee and 1/32 Blackfoot. It is a shame that I cannot enroll because I do not have enough proof to show that I am Native on both sides and that I do not have enough Native American blood. What really matters is that I am African American and Native American in my heart and spirit!
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Nadia
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Anne K
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Calvin E. W
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- My Grandparents hid their Cherokee blood. It would have made them a 3rd class citizen.
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Annadella Little Owl P
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- I thank the Great Spirit for my grandparents, who really raised me, and for letting me know that I was of mixed blood. In doing my genealogy, I have not run across any N.A. link. However, my great-grandmother was definitely Native American, worked leather, beaded, quilled, made yarn out of all kinds of things to weave materials, told us many stories about the Great Spirit, moon, sun, directions, feathers, tobacco, trees, colors, crow, trickster, Old Man, turtle, beaver, etc., stories her mother told her about living, surviving, having to move, how the old ones used to live, etc. Her son, my grandfather, raised us in Native American ways about children, animals, dancing, music, crops, trees, etc. His wife, my grandmother also told us older grandchildren that we were - because she was - part Cherokee, from the mountains, especially Pine Mountain, and her stories, too. My other grandmother said she was part Shawnee from her mother. I came to be through them. I am whatever they are, regardless of the %.
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lizsabala
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JOSEPHINE H F
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- I DESCEND FROM SKARURE BLOOD, MY MOTHER( AKENE) ALWAYS REMINDED ME AS A CHILD YOU ARE SKARURE DO NOT FORGET IT!!!! I WOULD RESPOND : ENE, WE ARE NOT INDIANS ANYMORE! SHE WOULD SAY DON'T EVER LET ME HEAR SAY THAT AGAIN AND I GOT A SLAP IN THE MOUTH!!! SHE WOULD AND MENTION THE SACRIFICES THAT WERE MADE FOR THE SAKE OF THE GREAT ORDER OF PEACE! MY MOTHER WOULD SAY YOU ARE NOT INDIAN YOU FIRST PEOPLE WHO HAPPENS TO BE SKARURE!!!!!
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Nancy K
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Mariah L
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Mike RedHawk H
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michael w
- Comments
- В
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Sharyl D
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- Although both my exhusband and I and our parents are enrolled our children can't be because of this!
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Bryan L. B
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mali
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- i don't want your benefits i'm very educated and have my own investments,i don't need a hand out from the gov't, all i want is my people recgnize me as part of them. black people don't deny their own people i take hat off to them beacuse they havw souls but the tribe my father is a memeber of ,will not acept me because i don't have enough blood quantum to be indian, iam 1/8 navaho and they won't acept me how cruel and sad they won't allow me to love them. i forgive and i pray to God to forgive them for they know not what they do.
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naomi
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- lineal decendents are your blood!!!!!!!!!!! if they have proof!!!!! let them in!!!!!!!! stop this self murder now those people are out there because they had no choice in the matter! now you sit back and watch get away again! oh please!!!! you are not stupid ! you can weed out the ones who is for the culture or for the monetary gain, if monetary gain is the motive i say close your doors!!! if it's for the culture then they deserve that right to come back to their to people.all you skins need to stop this racist garbage now!!!! alot of these people are educated and can be an asset to your nation don't be a fool and lose out!!!!! tand let them come back totheir home, and stop this racism now!!!!!!!!! you will be literal fools if you don't allow them back into your lives.if they are comming back for monetary gains then leave them alone!!!!!!!!
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DEBBIE H
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- I AGREE WHOLE HEARTEDLY, AND I HAVE TOO MUCH TO SAY TO JUST MAKE A COMMENT!
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Sharon F
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salish
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- i dont think that intermarriage will save blood quantum! i think this is a racist idean and avery sick one!! i will marry whom i please and be happy!!! indian blood is going to run through you no matter what!!! all you sick indians out there that think this way you better wake up !! i will not marry some because of blood quantum i will marry because i'm in love and want to spend the rest of my life with this person not because of some notion that i have to marry my own kind!!!!! thats what some other groups do and i think it's sick iwould'nt marry my lineal family member much less a tribal member!!! NDNS! WE ALL AHE HUMAN BEINGS WHAT IS THE BIG DEAL ANY WAY SINCE WHEN YOU BECAME SO HUNG UP?!!!!! we need to get a life and spend more time on keeping the peace all our brthrs and sisters of all ethnic walks of life and stop this blood quantum hipocrisy!!!!!!
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Millard S
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- Blood quantam is a way for the government (and yes some of our own people) have used and continue to use to eliminate the American Indian as a social group of people. I believe that one drop of blood is the same as whole.It then should then be one's path to follow if one chooses.
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Nancy C
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Christie T
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- Native Pride!! Why do some indians receive Percapita and some do not? Why is there a quantum. Lots of my family receives the Percapita, but I can not, but yet I am proud and honor our culture. Colville Indian Descendant should not be a title, I do not use it I am Colville Indian!
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marcia h
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Neil R
- Comments
- Freedom and Equality for All... no exceptions...
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Michelle S
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- Leech Lake Ojibwe
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Mary Ann N
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kiowa n
- Comments
- i will not reveal my name,iagree with mari and enna a lot of native americans in this country are not full blooded,or any one for that matter,i just wish the indian nations will reconsider their racist ways and be more open minded about things. i look at my surroundings every day and realize that reservations are nothing but goverment owned concentration camps and we indigenous people are just too witemanized to see the difference. i am saying all this to say,is that,if the gov'mnt have you thinking that you are getting so much being indian you are wrongly mistaken!! i view of the indian nations will disapear if we don't start decendency rolls,we will have to intermarriage with each other then we will have more problems than we bargain for.native americans has always intermarried with other ethnic groups blacks,white and other tribes what is the problem? i want to know my lineage family!! education benefits should be allowed.90 day open enrollment. no proof ,not in.
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Michael A. M
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Noah B
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Nicole B
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- Since the American government verifies Indian race by blood, then to be politically correct all races should be determined by blood.
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Moe K. B
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maureen b
- Comments
- blood quantum is a form of genocide.
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James R. Maupin J
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- don't let the native ways perish
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peggy a
- Comments
- i believe in this petition as my father was apache my mother cherokee
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Jacki H
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Kenneth S
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Jaunice Y
- Comments
- Thanks so much. It is time something was done about this. My family went through this problem many years ago, and many times since.
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Dustin M
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Donna S
- Comments
- The BIA does NOT determine blood quantum for any Nation!! Each Nation makes its own determinations! Blood quantum is but ONE requirement. This petition is a slap in the face of each Nation's Sovereignty. It would have been better to petition to have the US government removed from any and all Nation's tribal business.
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Barbara MorningStar P
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- Why don't any other races in the United States have to show blood quantums? What is wrong with this picture? Equality for all!!!
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Hallie C
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Jennie R
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Mitchell D
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Michael B
- Comments
- I agree with most of the arguments in this petition.
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choctaw o
- Comments
- forced sterilization,racial assimilation,lineal family denial, racism,passing as black,as white and knw full well that you come from indian ancestry,blood quantum,cdib cards=genocide!!!!!! get my meaning?and there's more to come.
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6031
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