Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you.
— Book of Matthew, King James translation
I ended Part One on Tuesday with some comments about my own children, who were born to a mother certified by the US government as a “true American Indian” due to her ancestry. Clarissa had a blood quantum of 1/4, making her eligible for various federal and state programs and policies directed at “real Indians.”
When the US Congress approved the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the law specifically defined an Alaskan Native as someone with verifiable “Indian” ancestry — meaning that at least 1/4 of the person’s ancestral heritage, taken as a whole, consisted of full-blood Indians. The same federal law produced thirteen “Alaska Native corporations” that replaced traditional tribal governments in Alaska with corporate, business-based organizations designed to strive after corporate profits. The basis of those profits would be the corporation-owned lands deeded back to the Alaskan Natives in 1971.
American Indians are thus the only racial group in the US who must present “proof of their blood line” in order to receive federal and corporate benefits defined by various federal laws and policies.
Because their mother was only 1/4 “American Indian” and their father (me) had no known Indian ancestors, my three children — Kahlil, Lily and Ursala — don’t qualify as “Alaska Natives” under the Alaska Native Settlement Act.
But in fact, my children have seen many benefits from their ancestry, even as young people with “less than federally acknowledged blood quantum.” All three received college scholarships based on the fact that their mother was officially an American Indian. All three have been welcomed, to some degree, into the Tlingit Indian social structure, once again as a result of who their mother was.
Blood quantum laws first became widely applied, in the US, following the passage of the Wheeler-Howard Act, also known as the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. The ‘long title’ of the bill summarizes some of its importance:
An Act to conserve and develop Indian lands and resources; to extend to Indians the right to form business and, other organizations; to establish a credit system for Indians; to grant certain rights of home rule to Indians; to provide for vocational education for Indians; and for other purposes.
The US Congress, in 1934, was seemingly attempting to right some wrongs committed by the federal government under its previous policies, which involved killing or starving as many Indians as possible, and then attempting to force any remaining Indians to assimilate into Euro-centric American culture, through the use of boarding schools, for example, and by breaking up tribally-owned Indian reservations into private parcels subject to property taxes.
The major goal of the Indian Reorganization Act was (according to Wikipedia):
“… to reverse the traditional goal of assimilation of Indians into American society and to strengthen, encourage and perpetuate the tribes and their historic traditions and culture.”
The US government began distributing revenues and services to Indian tribes, encouraging them to reassert their sovereignty and formerly-discouraged cultural practices, and to choose their own leaders. But the federal government also wanted to make sure that only “real Indians” were benefitting from the new deal.
Thus, the importance of ‘blood quantum laws.”
But US blood quantum policies have nevertheless created a division between the people with at least 1/4 Indian blood and those who may have been raised in tribal cultures but who don’t have the requisite ancestry. That division has had financial as well as social implications.
The blood quantum laws have likewise created seemingly a permanent division between the human beings who consider themselves to be “Native Americans” and the rest of us human beings, from whatever other type of family background, who cannot claim an official 1/4 “American Indian” blood quantum.
Divisions established by law or by policy cut both ways, but they are always divisions.
These divisions between human beings exist, however, only if we — whether we be Indian or non-Indian — wish to view the world through this peculiar and complicated ‘blood quantum’ lens.
There are alternate lenses through which to view the world.
There’s a phrase that can easily be applied to my children’s father (me.) As a person with White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant ancestors, folks can easily — if they so wish — refer to me as a bearer of “White Privilege.” In such case, this essay has been written by a person with “White Privilege” and can be dismissed as invalid, or lacking in understanding of the deeper issues, or as coming from a skewed perspective.
It’s difficult, in 21st century America, to argue against such claims. I can think and write only as a person with a certain ancestry who was married to a “certified” American Indian for 36 years, and who has three children who’ve seen positive benefits to their lives as a result of their ancestral heritage.
How could such a marriage persist, in modern day America?
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.