Can disenrolled members claim Native American heritage? Wilma Mankiller, Principle chief of the Cherokee Tribe from 1985-1995 stated, “An Indian is an Indian even if they have only one drop of Indian blood;” however, “A Cherokee Nation official rebuked Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts after a DNA test report." Curious. There is the right of the individual to assert their being, and there's the fact tribes' sovereignty means their right to determine their membership. But one would think all tribes determine membership, because of the excessive negative slant of the Warren story, as Cherokee do. Not so. One can't be aware of the Warren story without questioning a person's right to assert Native American heritage without a tribe's approval. Which tribes? Those who have used DNA tests to disenroll people, those who use DNA tests for membership, or those who only go by the Dawes Rolls? Frauds, who steal culture or pretend so they can get benefits, don't count. With honesty comes the right with evidence to claim Native American heritage without tribal membership. To have it otherwise is to help Andrew Jackson finish the job of extermination.
Frauds, who steal culture or pretend so they can get benefits, don't count in this. Cultural appropriation is a start, let's begin there.
Bollywood star Shraddha Kapoor has been slammed by social media users for cultural appropriation after she was spotted wearing a Native American headgear.
We’re getting closer to seeing where the point of harm is, notwithstanding the extremely offensive nature of her wearing that headdress in the first place.
Being inspired by an artist is great. Copying an artist and writing it off as your own is not. Appreciating Native American headdresses is great. Wearing a headdress when you have not been authorised to wear one is not. (And by "authorised" I mean you were gifted the right to wear one by a recognised leader of a Native American community in which headdresses are known to be status symbols. You probably haven't since it is hard to earn this right, so take the headdress off, you look silly.) See, these beautiful items belong to a people. They are restricted cultural items. Not just anyone can wear them. Read this article if you disagree with me.
Here we are now.
Congress passed the Indian Arts and Crafts Act (“Act”)in 1935 to “promote the economic welfare” of Indians “through the development of Indian arts and crafts and the expansion of the market for the products of Indian art and craftsmanship.
This is where harm comes in from cultural appropriation in some way: financial gain or potential financial gain to the person crossing the line is their motivation. The movie star that does it might make a buck out of it, and that takes away from using real Native American actors in movies in those roles. So all those Italian actors in those Spaghetti Westerns we grew up with if you're my age were frauds. But then there are the new age frauds that claim to be a Medicine Man or Medicine Woman and charge a lot of money. Real Medicine People in the healing arena don't charge money, but they can accept a donation afterwards. Plastic shamans help disintegrate the culture. Related, are non-native control freaks who go to a couple of ceremonies and then try leading those same ceremonies themselves. Get real. And I'm not going to mention the sweat lodges around here that mix yoga, and put Christian fundamentalist exorcism techniques in the lodge with the Lord's Prayer. It looks like I just mentioned them. Jay Swallow, seen a ways below, is partly responsible for that. Lastly, what about non - natives who only try to get a card to get benefits, or who claim that a tribe is being racist against them because that tribe will not give them the same rights? To me, they should be shamed since they feel none. However, since the extermination policy of the United States government against the American Indian is still being successful in the eyes of its bigots - things aren't that simple.
www.washingtonpost.com/...
"She came from my very own vagina!” my mother would say, and we’d continue on our stroll. This has been a common narrative throughout my life. I’m not blond anymore, but I am light-skinned and I’ve always been white-passing. My mother is of the Tewa Native American tribe and my father is white. Physically, I took after my father.
Because Tewas have never been a federally recognized tribe (there are between 400 and 500 tribes that aren’t recognized in the United States) and because our family has never lived on a reservation, we don’t quite count as Native to many people. I get it. I do. Historically, many non-indigenous people have claimed to be indigenous to stake a claim in (i.e. steal) tribal land or resources. Despite the lack of recognition and despite my skin, I claim both whiteness and Nativeness, because there’s a knowing in my bones that has been shaped by my mother, and her mother, and her mother before her.
If you're not black, you don't get to use the n-word. If you're not gay you don't get to say "qu*er" at anybody; and, if you don't have any native identity with some evidence, you don't have any right to make any determination about it, so just shut the f****** up Fox News.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/elizabeth-warren-is-a-fraud-her-lies-about-being-native-american-disqualify-her-from-presidency-senate
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who is expected to announce her candidacy for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination Saturday, is a fraud. For decades she has been living a lie, pretending to be a Native American when she is not.
An individual has the right to assert their being as a person on the inside. For example, there are those who have lighter complexion, but are strong in their traditions. Conversely, there are those tribal members with darker complexion, but who abandoned tribal ways. Most difficult to grapple with are Indian Scouts. Consider Dick Wilson.
https://www.revolvy.com/page/Dick-Wilson-%28tribal-chairman%29?smv=468141
Wilson's main supporters were from within the town of Pine Ridge. The traditionals, who tended to be full-bloods who lived on the outskirts and followed older practices, tended to criticize Wilson for being too close to whites. Officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) continued to have a significant role in reservation affairs. Opponents criticized Wilson for favoring mixed-bloods (he was of mixed-race ancestry) over full-blood Oglala, and giving "special attention" and benefits to his friends and relatives. In response, Wilson reportedly said, "There's nothing in tribal law against nepotism."[6]
At the time, the Lakota Sioux had brought suit against the US government for the taking of the Black Hills in 1877, in violation of the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie that had established the Great Sioux Reservation. Wilson favored reaching a financial settlement with the US government and using the money to invest in infrastructure, education and other improvements for the tribe. By contrast, the traditionals wanted to refuse anything less than the full return of the property to the Lakota.[6]
Maybe you knew about Wilson, but did you know about Jay Swallow?
https://www.charismanews.com/us/48566-native-american-apostle-jay-swallow-passes-away
Swallow was a Cheyenne-Sioux and a U.S. Navy veteran who preached, taught, fed, clothed and prayed for native people from the Arctic Circle to Central America for over 50 years.
Swallow was widely regarded as an apostolic father to Christians of all colors and backgrounds. In recent years he traveled to other continents to minister to indigenous and non-indigenous people, with the intent of healing their lands and nations through the redemptive power of Jesus Christ.
Because some people are so lost in the stereotypical, mythical, all - spiritual Native American, who only lives outside – they forget about the Indian Scouts of which the latter two were. And maybe that's why they don't see tribal members with no interest in their cultural ways asserting their right to be who they are, too.
Every tribe possesses the inherent sovereignty to determine their membership by the means they choose.
http://osagenews.org/en/article/2015/12/08/chief-and-osage-congress-odds-over-disenrollment-members/
The Osage Nation Membership Act was the fifth piece of legislation to become law under the new form of government in 2006. ONCA 06-05, sponsored by Congresswoman Shannon Edwards is a 4-page document that has relatively gone untouched over the years.
On Dec. 8, Edwards filed ONCA 16-16, which adds a page and a half of amendments to the membership act. Standing Bear said a member of the congressional staff was sent a letter of disenrollment.
“The executive branch implemented what they called a Policy and Procedure Manual that has a bunch of things that are not policy, I mean, removing someone from the rolls is not a policy, it needs to be a law,” Edwards said. “It has DNA testing in it, from what I understand is they mailed out notices of removal and had a Policy and Procedure manual congress has never seen, plus the Asa Cunningham situation demanded that Congress act now.”
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/lsquonooksack-306rsquo-fight-to-remain-in-tribe/
The Nooksack Indian Tribe, based in Deming, Whatcom County, has about 2,000 members. Enrolled members must have appeared on the 1942 tribal census, received an original 1942 tribal land allotment or be a descendant of someone who met either of those conditions. The tribal council says the 306 do not meet these membership requirements.
http://www.kosu.org/post/cherokee-freedmen-win-citizenship
The Cherokee Nation argued in 2014 that the 1866 treaty never granted citizenship rights to the Freedmen or their descendants. Hogan, however, ruled that the rights of Cherokee Freedmen are tied to the rights of native Cherokees and "cannot be extinguished solely by amending that (Cherokee) Constitution."
In his ruling, Hogan also made clear that the Cherokee Nation's right to determine its membership is no less now than it was after the 1866 treaty, but membership can be limited by a treaty.
- snip –
Cherokee Nation voters amended the Constitution in 2007 to limit Cherokee citizenship to people who could prove they were Cherokee "by blood." This stripped the Freedmen descendants of their rights, spurring this most recent legal battle.
And my new governor, Trump approving and Cherokee tribal member Kevin Stitt, has the right to cram Christianity down my throat, too? No. A tribe can tell me I'm not a member, but it can't tell me or any of my friends who had grandparents who never did paperwork to get a card, that they or I aren't Native American. Of course identity is more than blood, but that's another diary.
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/12/9/1722254/-Native-American-Fund-Christians-Poem-I-ll-Never-Be-the-White-Man-Black-Elk-Saint
“You did not have to choose between the two, you could be both” is a false premise, for one may believe the similarities, but one can not do both. Here is my explanation. One, ceremonies require preparation like gathering wood, cleaning areas of brush, getting rocks, and hard work. Do you get rocks and chop wood, or go to church? Those that say “you could be both” are generally useless in helping with preparations. Two, the ceremony may take all morning or evening and the Sundance takes 8 days. “You could be both” if you lie to enough relatives who vehemently disapprove and do both, by watching a sermon on your phone on the dance grounds, I guess.
One prominent lodge recently closed after the grand daughter, who has a mother who doesn’t want her going to Sundance for religious reasons, asked the leader to stop pouring water. The inipi (sweat lodge) closed; consequently, there was dominionist rhetoric there before I left a few years ago. I refused to “be both.” Native American Fundamentalist Christians, “those who believe in God, Jesus, the Holy Ghost, and Adam and Eve” are simply unwilling to pray to the buffalo in ceremony, and pray to Jesus in church.
Finally, let me speak about my “native mindset.” My mind was already made up when I contacted my biological mother at 18, already made up that I rejected the premise of fundamentalist Christianity. Consequently, when she sent me religious propaganda by mail, our only contact at that point, I knew I had a choice: tell her I accepted Jesus or never meet her. I choose the latter. Since that time, I learned my Native American DNA comes from her. I choose the “Good Red Road” over her insincerity and constant proselytizing. I also forgave her.
I contacted my biological sisters a couple years ago, and both are Tr*mp voters. Interesting, because although one sister embraces my biological mother’s fundamentalist beliefs, my biological mother still rejects her. Then, she loves her. Then, she rejects her. Her being rejected and accepted by her mother, mirrors her repeated repentance of “not saved/saved.” I know, I’ve been there.
With honesty comes the right with evidence to claim Native American heritage without tribal membership. Years before becoming a member of the Metis Nation of the United States, I was listed as being Cheyenne for a performance at a S.P.I.R.I.T. rally at the Oklahoma State Capital (below was the 1st one, I'm referring to a rally a year or so later).
https://youtu.be/JvvFwHkFkjQ
I called the organizer and told her to change it. Remember Myspace? I had written some about the history of the Cheyenne on MySpace, which had given the impression that I might have been Cheyenne. My main interest comes from the fact that although I was adopted, I have a cousin and an aunt who are Cheyenne, but I am not. Honesty is hard sometimes. There’s a Metis group in Canada who say that I, Metis in North Dakota, and Metis close to the Canadian border aren't Metis.
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/metis-nation-rallies-to-secure-identity-symbols-502225351.html
Some of this has to do with money. Armed with Supreme Court decisions that force the federal government to deal with Métis claims, the council and others (such as the Manitoba Metis Federation) have signed multimillion-dollar agreements to support self-government and programs.
Some of this has to do with the integrity of the council. The Métis Nation of Ontario, for example, was put on probation by the council for accepting members from organizations that the council doesn’t recognize.
The real issue here is who has the right and jurisdiction to define Métis.
What Mankiller'd say about Warren is unknown, since Mankiller is deceased. But Warren does have that "one drop of Indian blood;" consequently, “The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians issued a statement largely supporting Sen. Elizabeth Warren's recent DNA test to confirm her Native American ancestry — breaking with another tribe that called the move "inappropriate and wrong." After hearing Mankiller speak at Oklahoma City University while she was alive, reading her books, and having her sign one - Mankiller would not condone the white supremacist, dominant culture mindset defining anything having to do with Native American identity. She would have humiliated Jackson much more than Pelosi has Tr*mp.