Issues in Indian Country

Coming soon: Tuition Waiver Myths Dispelled

DNA, Blood, and Racializing the Tribe"
by Kimberly TallBear (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate)

Prof. Tallbear, makes a tough and thorough critique of the idea of blood quantum. Check out her article from Wicazo Sa Review. She offers new ways to understand this complicated tool for creating Indian identity--or erasing it.
According to TallBear, "Tribes, at least rhetorically, claim to organize themselves according to their inherent sovereignty and the idea of the tribal nation. If this is the goal, then racializing the tribe (naming that entity as only a biological entity) undermines both tribal cultural and political authorities. Although blood quantum, as it is practiced today, has some historical roots in other philosophies, tribal cultural and political self-determination is not well served by basing citizenship and cultural affiliation solely in narrow policies of biological kinship.... If tribal political practice is not meaningfully informed by cultural practice and philosophy, it seems that tribes are abdicating self-determination."
Rather you agree or don't, "DNA" is worth a read.

Sovereigny: A Right & a Responsibility
by Bill LeBlanc, tribal elder and former director of the Michigan Commission on Indian Affairs

We are lucky to have one of the state's leading elder statesmen in our midst at Bay Mills--Bill LeBlanc, former chair of the Michigan Commission on Indian Affairs. He shares his views on the definition and responsibility of sovereignty.
"Sovereignty has been an important part of our existence for the past 40 years and it can continue to be an important part of our growth in the days and years ahead, but it is not a power and an authority that functions without the efforts of the leaders and people of each community. When I used to be asked how to get anything out of our status as a sovereign nation within a nation, my answer was always, “Be sovereign." ....I think I may have been responsible for the designation of our new young leadership being called “brief case warriors.” At any rate, I am proud that the young native people finally went to war against the invading powers and were able to restore some of the rights of a sovereign power." READ MORE!

Native American Sovereignty
by Rikki Timmer

Rikki Timmer hopes to be an attorney some day, but for now she's thinking very deeply about the legal and cultural histories and issues facing her community. Her article gives a broad historical context for the issue of tribal sovereignty, as well as expressing the context for ignorance of tribal sovereignty. Says Rikki, "Under the Cherokee Nation v. Georgia Supreme Court decision, Chief Justice John Marshall described the tribe as a "distinct political society that was separated from others, capable of managing its own affairs, and governing themselves.
"Native Americans have been fighting for decades to get the recognition they had before 1800. Without the reserved rights the tribes obtain from the federal or state governments our reservations would lose the culture and tribes could no longer survive as Indian Nations.
"In the words of Bay Mills pipecarrier Dwight "Bucko" Teeple, "Sovereignty isn't anything if you don't act upon it."" READ MORE!