Thank you for this! Take it from a half breed who can not enroll in any Indian nation, this is a very painful thing. I speak my language and was raised in the culture by my grandmother. The Mississippi Choctaw are limiting thier gene pools by requiring a member be more than 50%. I also know full blooded Cherokes who can not get enrollment and the ones I know speak their language very fluently. I may be wrong on this, but last I heard an Indian can only be recoginized by one tribe as well. A very famous pueblo Indian here in New Mexico called me a "half breed who doesn't know anything about being Indian." Ironically, his last name is Spanish.... And I have a friend who is a Taos half breed and she had to leave the rez because of the discrimination. We need to rethink this whole blood quantum thing... Raven [email protected] wrote: I couldnt agree more. Very well stated. In a message dated 4/2/2007 8:01:12 AM Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: I have not kept up with all of this discussion. However, there is a very famous case here in New Mexico of family who are all full-bloods, and none of the children can be enrolled. Their mother is from Santa Clara Pueblo. Their father was Navajo. Apparently, the father disappeared somewhere along the way. And as is fairly common among Pueblo women, she never legally married him. The Santa Clara refused to enroll them because their father was Navajo. As may have already been mentioned, the Supreme Court has ruled that each nation may determine its own citizenry (membership). Consequently, these people--now adults--are not enrolled anywhere. Some Indian nations have gone back to the traditional practice of adopting people as adults because of their contributions to that group. That was the traditional practice. Race was not the primary consideration although clan and familial relationships were important. Also, we should remember that many mixed-bloods with a very small blood quantum gave their entire lives for the welfare of their own nations. Among Navajos--now Dine--blood quantum, although a policy--is less important for calling oneself Dine than being born within the 4 sacred mountains, knowing one's clans, and speaking the language. When I visited the Maori, they were shocked to hear about the blood quantum system. In New Zealand, anybody who can trace his/her ancestry to a particular iwi (tribe) is Maori. More importantly, anybody who takes time to learn the language is accepted as a friend. I personally abhor the blood quantum system because it is a vestige of slavery in this country and puts all of us on the level of well bred animals, which is exactly the attitude of the whites when they implemented this system--they wanted to degrade us, to make us less than human. The result have been to divide us along racial and color lines. That is not an indigenous system, but a colonial system. There are plenty of people who are enrolled who never give back to their own nations and receive benefits while there are people who give to their ancestral nations without any compensation, without asking for compensation. What would our ancestors say to that? Holabitubbe George Ann Gregory, Ph.D. DARICE HOUGHTON wrote: That is exactly right. Each parent is full blooded. The father is Navajo, Kiowa and Zuni. The mother is a full blooded pueblo mix. The children don't have enough quantum of any one tribe but are none the less full blooded Indians...In each of the repective tribes they must be 1/4. Both parents are recognized but they are only 1/4 of the tribe. This dropped thier children to 1/8. Like my friend Rose once said, "I thought an Indian was an Indian." James Brown wrote: I need to understand this correctly as you state.Are you saying that each of these two people possess 4/4 degree Native American blood quantum? Are either of these two people recognized as a tribal member in his/her respective tribe? I'm curious, as I'm aware that there are tribes whose blood degree requirments are greater than others. James Brown ----- Original Message ----- From: "cinnabarsetters" To: Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2007 5:22 PM Subject: [CHOCTAW-SOUTHEAST] Fw: Blood Quantum A whole different angle > > Hello, > I have read this list for over two years and seldom post, but this is a > story I want to share. First of all the Mississippi Choctaw will not > accept anyone who is 50% or under Choctaw. That would leave a lot of > Oklahoma Choctaw out. > > I have met full bloded Choctaw who don't even know their language. That > is indeed sad. If a mix-blood knows his/her language or custom, is that > mixed blood any less Indian than the full blood who doesn't speak his/her > language? > > But here is even a more interesting scenario. I have a friend who is a > full-blooded Indian, but a mix blood of three different tribes. He > married a full-blooded Indian who is also a tribal mix. Their children > are full blooded Indians, but can not belong to any tribe bacause thier > blood quantum's are too marginal. How do we categorize these Indians? > Raven > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message George Ann Gregory, Ph.D. Language Revitalization Specialist Fulbright Scholar PO Box 40184 Albuquerque, NM 87196 http://www.geocities.com/hoanumpoli http://www.drgrammarguru.com Halito Osiyo Cualli Tonalli Tena koe Iorana ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message