How do I establish a Native cultural connection? Forum

[Flett]

Not offended... simply trying to provide insight in how things are where I am. And if anyone was going to a school in the Texas/Oklahoma area those schools would be very familiar with how Indians are carded here. I suspect if an Indian from the Northwest were to come here with the CDIB card they would have difficulty in being accepted by the school as an Indian. In other parts of the country I'm sure they would not have that trouble. I can say from experience that when I applied years ago to Harvard that I was asked to provide my roll number... which showed their ignorance as the Dawes roll was closed in 1914 and anyone living that was listed on it would have been so old that law school would have been the last thing on their mind.

It is enlightening to find out how other tribes operate in other parts of the country. From earlier posts I get the impression that this is no generalization possible in how tribes accept or reject people into their tribe.

Interesting. If a law school were to ask me for my roll number I would assume they were referring to my enrollment number with the Spokane Tribe itself. The Dawes Roll wouldn't even cross my mind as it was of limited relevance to my tribe. How are Natives from Texas/Oklahoma carded? I work for a Tribal TANF office and have seen quite a few enrollment cards/letters/Certificates of Indian Blood, but can't, off the top of my head, remember having seen any from Texas/Oklahoma. I'm certain we serve tribal members from those areas, I just can't remember having seen their paperwork.

[Pip]

Interesting. If a law school were to ask me for my roll number I would assume they were referring to my enrollment number with the Spokane Tribe itself. The Dawes Roll wouldn't even cross my mind as it was of limited relevance to my tribe. How are Natives from Texas/Oklahoma carded? I work for a Tribal TANF office and have seen quite a few enrollment cards/letters/Certificates of Indian Blood, but can't, off the top of my head, remember having seen any from Texas/Oklahoma. I'm certain we serve tribal members from those areas, I just can't remember having seen their paperwork.

Here the tribes make the decisions, once a tribe accepts you and provides you a tribal membership card they then get a CDIB card for you from the BIA. The tribal cards are necessary for any assistance from a tribe, for any assistance from a government run entity such as an Indian hospital you have to have a CDIB card as a tribal card means nothing to them. Letters are meaningless to either so you must have a tribal card and CDIB card.

As there are no Indians native to this region all the Indian tribes require you to trace lineage back to relatives that were on either the Dawes Roll if you are from one of the five civilized tribes or from other rolls if you were from other tribes... The tribes also tend to accept people with such small degrees of Indian blood that it makes you want to laugh sometimes. I know of some that got in tribes with 1/32... so its not uncommon to go to a Indian hospital and see lots of blond or red headed "Indians", which sadly only wouldn't know the first thing about being an Indian other than the fact that it gets them free health care.

[Duralex]

Aww, Nightrunner's post made me go find out that Vine Deloria is dead. RIP.

OP, PM me if you like--I can try to put you in touch with an Law/Anthro prof who has worked with the Hopi if you think that might be at all useful.

[NoJob]

Try not to be too judgmental, dude; the best Indian author alive (not named Momaday or Alexie) is blond. Genes do weird shit sometimes. We should remember that the content of someone's culture and character is not even externally visible, let alone color-coded.

Sounds like something a person with low blood quantum would say.

[NoJob]

In your case, if you can't even get a CDIB, you are not Indian. For that all u need is one ancestor from sometime in American history appearing on one Indian roll. Are u seriously telling me that you are unable to produce that? Then, u are not Indian.

I would agree. 30 years ago the US government issued the CDIB cards, and there was a possibility that someone that was a tribal member could have had difficulty getting a CDIB card, but the process in recent times is different. The current process for getting a CDIB card is done through the tribes, the tribes determine if you are a tribal member and do the work to insure that tribal members get their CDIB card.... in this method there is no reason a tribal member wouldn't have a CDIB card and if you aren't accepted by the tribe as a tribal member it becomes rather silly to claim you are an Indian.

What about the people who, back in the day, refused to register themselves with the various rolls? Lots of people hid away and avoided these kinds of things. Taking it a little further, a CDIB is not necessarily reflective of any actual quantum. Lots of times people of mixed heritage were just considered 'full-bloods' for the purpose of simplicity. I'm not really sure there are that many tribal populations that can say '100% FBI' because most places are so mixed, save perhaps some Seminole families, maybe Navajo and Apache and a few other groups. But I do agree on the sentiment anyway about fry bread. As for the use of the term 'native', I use it to generically refer to other tribes. In academia, the trend seems to be 'Native American' or 'American Indian'. While we can use colloquial terms amongst ourselves, it's not very convenient for other people for me to always say, "I'm anishnaabe" or "I'm haudenosaaunee".

Given that many rolls go back multiple generations, I find this refusing-to-register argument to be questionable.

Additionally, many roll takers consulted the chiefs. So even if you try to hide, you can still be found. Finally, what type of Indian would not want to be affiliated with their tribe? I have an answer: it's the ones with low blood quantums. They went white in the nineteenth century and they shouldn't be allowed back now.

[s0ph1e2007]

okay, someone needs to lock this thread

99% of the people that respond to NDN cultural ties/box checking questions are insane

[llama11]

Given that many rolls go back multiple generations, I find this refusing-to-register argument to be questionable.

Additionally, many roll takers consulted the chiefs. So even if you try to hide, you can still be found. Finally, what type of Indian would not want to be affiliated with their tribe? I have an answer: it's the ones with low blood quantums. They went white in the nineteenth century and they shouldn't be allowed back now.

That's a great attitude. Yes, the litmus test for who is Native should be documents produced by the United States Government.

[serdog]

To paraphrase Bill Maher, if you have to tell me what fraction Indian you are, you are not Indian.

There are several varieties of stupid wrapped in those very few words above.

Took the words away from me. Where I come from say thing like What he say is told fighting words.

I know this is a old topic but I just want to add my 2 bits a Canadian non-Status First Nation and more importantly Han Huch'in. I doesn't matter what the government calls you if you have the cultural connection then you belong to that nation doesn't matte if you full blood or 1/528, It make me feel psychically sick reading some of the comments about how mixed blood shouldn't call themselves ___ but must call themselves white drags up the worst of the worst of colonialism that our people face dand that many great leaders in my homeland fought with all their heart.

To the OP think about cultural things you have done what does it mean to be Aboriginal(I dislike NA) to you? Talk about your quest to find that Identity, why is important to you to identify with being Aboriginal? Cheak the box if you feel it in you heart and soul and talk about those topic or what feels right. I wish you good look Brother.

[SupraVln180]

OP you are going to have an extremely difficult time establishing a cultural connection, I am also NA, but just left it out of my applications altogether because it is impossible for me to establish a connection. Most NA's in the late 1800's and early 1900's did not want to be recognized as Native Americans, unless they lived on a reservation, which in reality, not all of them did. This is what happened with the NA's in my family, hence no paper trail. So you might have to leave it off, or else you will appear to Law Schools as a box checker and it might hurt you way more than help you. Just try and kill your LSAT so you won't even need the boost.