SocraticGadfly: Who’s an American Indian?

January 13, 2009

Who’s an American Indian?

High Country News has an excellent in-depth story on the issue of “blood quantum,” how it defines American Indian status, and more.

Oh, if you believe all American Indians get a bunch of high-dollar freebies, etc., you haven’t been to Montana’s Fort Peck Indian Reservation. Read the full story.

If you believe “greed” is only a white man’s issue, read how tribes will play with the blood quantum, or otherwise boot people off tribal enrollment, when gambling money comes down the pike. Read the full story, especially latter parts.

If you don’t understand how blood and lineage also tie in with off-reservation Indians, dying-out languages and more, Read the full story, especially the last part.

And, yes, even Indians have “you’re a Cherokee” jokes, based on tribes that appear to them to have thin lineages.

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