There are many things that come to mind when the subject of enrollment in a tribe comes up. I have so many emotional reactions to the thought that I hope attempting to write them down may make it clearer in my own mind. I do not know why any particular tribal remnant seeks official Federal recognition today. There are many reasons I suppose. Some think they can gain monetarily. Some may actually believe they are somehow helping the tribe by enrolling. Some feel it makes their heritage somehow more valid. Some hope for breaks for their kids in college. For those, I would ask, do you believe in affirmative action programs for blacks? If you don't, your reasoning is hypocritical. Some, no doubt, only want to open a casino somewhere and get rich. Some seem to feel they are not truly Indians unless the US government recognizes them as such. Maybe they aren't. They may be full of good intentions and they may just be more users. It is not for me to say. All I can say is my thoughts and feelings about it.

First. I know enough of my bloodlines that I do not need anyone to tell me who I am. Not the Federal government and not a tribal council. I know who I am. The Indians have a derisive term for people of mostly white blood who want to be known as Indians. They call them wannabes. Unfortunately, some Indians are as likely to use that as a weapon against those who know more and yes, revere more of their culture than they do themselves. I have listened to too many people with varying degrees of Indian blood reveal their total ignorance and even disregard of what true tribal culture is to be taken in by many on these points. There are red men with white souls. On the other hand, I have known many with very little Indian blood who hold their heritage in such high regard they won't even attempt to teach what they know because they think of themselves as white and thus not entitled. Let me make a statement that is sure to displease some. The words clan mother, elder, peacekeeper, and warrior have meanings that are very profound and just because some may toss those terms around does NOT mean they understand those meanings. Maybe those American Indians who say we have to live in a white man's world are right about many tribal dealings. But,…… there is a very big difference in knowing and doing business in the white world and knowing and holding your own culture in high regard in tribal situations.

So many tribal customs are already lost and there is no recompense for that. There are ceremonies that mean one thing in one tribe and another in a different tribe, so it is very difficult to speak generally about these things. Many of the tribes have very little of their own language left, much less the deep knowledge and history it took years for elders to impart to young people in tribal times. You can't take a crash course in "Indianhood". No official enrollment can make you more Indian. I do agree that those who want to learn should and can learn a lot. They can be valuable as teachers and spokesmen.

There is however, something wrong when a group of people who have never been on a reservation, never studied on their own or with elders start casually giving out "tribal" respect to others who know even less than they do about American Indian culture. Myself and my siblings are, at most, 1/32 Brothertown Indian. Even though our father was listed on the tribal rolls of the Stockbridge Mohicans, we are only Stockbridge technically, and most of our blood is Oneida. (A complicated story I know the details of.) I, in addition have 1/8th Cherokee blood. The Brothertowns seeking Federal recognition at this time have my support. It is their choice. I cannot say I agree with depending on Federal recognition but I am sure many of them are doing what they think they must under current Federal laws. The Brothertowns, like some other tribes, will depend on genealogical records for membership rights rather than on blood quantums. The Stockbridge have a blood quantum for enrollment and they know our blood is largely Oneida, so we are not eligible for enrollment with them. My great grandfather and great grandmother were both Oneida Indians, but they lived with the Stockbridge most of their lives. Let me insert here and now that it is my opinion that the Indians were not wise to adopt the blood quantum rules. It has served as a tool to obliterate their heritage and even their financial status on their own reservations. It is a white man's tool that we picked up and used as a weapon against our own kind. No one is enriched by it except the tribal council and the money in the tribal coffers. TOO many chiefs view chieftainship through white man's eyes now. They see it as a position of power and wealth. In the old times, it would have been shameful for a chief to own more than others in the tribe. If he won more, gained more, or was given more, he promptly gave it away. People should not accept offices they do not even understand the meaning of. For too many years we have had inter-clan marriages among young people who do not even know they are going against tribal taboos.

I once sat in a room with about twenty American Indians. They were all related to me and one was the tribal chairperson of a large tribe. One of the young men there said that he was going to take an Indian name. He chose the name of a brave war hero who was an ancestor of ours, but he chose NOT his Indian name, but his Dutch name. I did not feel it was my place to comment and I waited for someone else to say something to enlighten him. I almost cried when I realized from the ensuing conversation that no one there realized the difference. My husband and myself, who had studied various Indian cultures and histories for years but who had always lived as whites were the only ones who realized his mistake. It istill makes me sad to think about that young man walking around proclaiming his Indian name to be "Honyery", a name that is Dutch.

Some Indian tribes have actually closed their casinos. Did you know that? Although they were making money, they felt that the harm to their culture was not worth the price they were paying. Admittedly they are rare. Too many red men have white souls. Some because they choose to, many because they don't know any other way to live.

Without any pretense to knowledge of what is right or wrong for others to do, I believe one should ask themselves certain questions before enrolling in a tribe.

1. WHY do I want official recognition of my belonging to this tribe? 2. What do I have to offer them? 3. What do they have to offer me? Is there more knowledge of my heritage? 4. What good will come to me OR the tribe by my being a member? 5. What are the goals of the tribal officers and what steps have they taken to ensure those goals remain intact for future leaders?


I wonder why so many of us want to belong to a culture we know little or nothing about? Do we see it as making us somehow better than we already are? How sad, if so. Do we think it will make us better or somehow on another level than our neighbors? How sad, indeed. In a time when our society has so many divisions, why seek more? We do not have to belong to a tribe to help it, defend it promote it.

I feel very deeply the suffering the indigenous people of this continent and others have suffered at the hands of whites. I feel MORE deeply about the sufferings we inflict on each other. A BIA card may get you on welfare. Is that where you want to be? For many Indians it is their only way of surviving. A BIA card would enable me to get into galleries as an Indian artist. It would help ease the way for me in that regard. The only thing is, I don't want that kind of help and separation. It reminds me too much of black armbands with a Star of David on them. I'm not sure I can more clearly state what I feel on the issue of enrollment. I can only say that tribal enrollment has been a tool used to tear away at a culture by both red and white people. I, personally, cannot and will not, take part in that.

People are people. There are brutes and idiots in all races. There are noble and self-sacrificing in all races. There are users in all races. To me, tribal status should be reserved for those who stayed in the area of lost reservations, who held on to their Indian culture and lived as much by the old ways as they possibly could. I know many lost their land through no fault of their own and that is why membership should be decided on a case by case basis and not have people ruled out because they were not in a certain place at a certain time in history. Walking the Red Road has a lot more to do with life style than it does location or blood quantums. Too many of our tribal councils today do not even know what the Red Road is, much less try to walk it.

For me, I will concentrate on living as the best human being I can be. Human Being, ......there is a term that used to mean a lot in old tribal cultures. Do you know what it means to an Indian? You or anyone may reject me as a person, but you cannot reject me because I am a Brothertown rather than a Stockbridge, nor a Stockbridge rather than an Oneida. Neither can you reject me as a white instead of a red person, nor a red person instead of a white. I know who I am and no government and no person anywhere, of any color has the right to change my opinion of my own value. Which tribes are represented in my blood has nothing to do with it. My behavior and my character are all that counts to me. My bloodlines have nothing whatsoever to do with my value as one of the Human Beings. "Red and yellow, black and white……………." Grant me the grace to love them all.






~ © Angelia (Artisan4zero@aol.com) ~

© Photograph by Paul (AHikingDude@aol.com)

November 22, 2003



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