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Crow Legislature rejects bill to expand enrollment · Best of: Features

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  Crow legislature rejects bill to expand enrollment. Written by Nora Mabi Montana
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  Free Press. This article is being read by an automated voice generated
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  by Everlet. After nearly two hours of impassioned debate, the Crow
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  Tribe's legislature on Wednesday voted down a bill that would dramatically change
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  the definition of tribal membership. The bill, brought by Chairman Frank White
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  Clay, would have revised the tribe's blood quantum standard, effectively making more
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  people eligible for tribal citizenship. Blood quantum, a concept created by white
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  settlers and rooted in assimilation tactics, refers to the fractional amount of
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  tribal affiliation in an individual's ancestry. The concept is central to individual
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  identity and is also highly controversial. Most tribes nationwide use a blood
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  quantum calculation to determine eligibility for citizenship. Tribal enrollment in turn determines
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  eligibility for certain health services, the ability to vote in tribal elections,
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  and whether a person can qualify for educational scholarships, among other rights
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  and privileges. Tribal enrollment numbers can also influence federal funding for tribal
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  programs. With each new generation it becomes harder for any tribe using
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  blood quantum to maintain its membership as tribal members marry non natives
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  or people from other tribes. The limitations of blood quantum as a
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  qualifying standard for tribal membership, a California Law Review article contends, threaten
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  to jeopardize the existence of native nations, as you cannot have a
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  nation without citizens. While most tribes in Montana use blood quantum to
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  determine citizenship, the Chippewa Cree and Northern Cheyenne tribes use a lineal
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  descendancy model, in which membership is determined by a person's ancestry. The
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  Blackfeet and Fort Belknap Ani E and Nakota tribes have also initiated
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  community discussions about potentially changing enrollment requirements. According to the Crow Tribe's
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  current enrollment policy, an individual must possess one quarter Crow Indian blood
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  to enroll as a member of the tribe. The proposed legislation would
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  revise that policy, so that all living current members would be considered
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  to have one hundred percent Crow blood. That would change the lives
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  and membership status not just of more than fourteen thousand enrolled Crow
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  tribal members, but thousands of descendants who would become more likely to
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  qualify for tribal membership in the services that come with it. The
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  Beal. The Crow tribal Legislative Branch, one of three branches of tribal
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  government, comprises eighteen senators. Sitting at a table surrounded by members of
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  the tribal legislature on Wednesday afternoon, Chairman Frank White Clay and Tribal
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  Attorney Majel Russell made their pitch for the bill. Blood Quantum, the
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  said, became central to federal policy in the late nineteenth century. From
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  eighteen eighty seven to nineteen thirty four, the federal government divided tribal
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  land into allotments for distribution to individual tribal members, using blood quantum
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  to determine eligibility, with the goal of assimilating Native Americans into white
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  society through private property ownership. In assigning blood quantum values to individuals,
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  federal agents made significant errors, said Russell. She called the practice arbitrary,
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  citing instances where children of the same parents were assigned different blood
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  quantum values. Russell presented the
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  Legislature. As They most viable option to address the issue in a
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  timely manner. Other reforms, she said, would require a constitutional referendum, a
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  more burdensome political process. The tribe has faced declining enrollment since twenty
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  twenty three, the chairman and tribal attorney argued. Without a blood quantum
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  revision in the coming decades, they said the tribe could eventually cease
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  to exist as a political entity. White Clay said the legislation could
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  benefit young people whose parents are enrolled but who are not enrolled
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  themselves. Everything about them is crow, he told the legislature. They live
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  here, they work here, their culture is here. But just by a
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  little bit, they're not crow. When we hold on to Blood Quantum,
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  our tribe’s has an expiration date. The discussion. While some senators opposed
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  the idea of revising blood quantum at all, others said the
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  legislation didn't go far enough and offered only a temporary fix. Senator
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  Darwin Spotted Sr. Voiced a popular counter argument that more liberal enrollment
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  requirements could result in more people vying for fewer resources in a
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  federal system where resources are already scarce. Right now we're fighting for
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  one big pot, all of us Native Americans in the US, he
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  said.
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  While the chairman and tribal attorney argued that federal funding is often
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  calculated based on a tribe's population, resulting in more resources based on
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  higher membership, Spotted said he was skeptical and added that the Trump
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  administration is particularly unpredictable. Senator Dean Don't Mick said that while he
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  appreciated how the legislation would benefit the tribe, he worried that broader
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  membership could make it more difficult in the future to revise the
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  tribe's constitution, which requires support from a significant portion of the tribe's
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  citizens. He also expressed concern that the legislation was passing the buck
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  to future generations to contend with the issue. I want to go
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  back to the drawing board, he said. Senator Jason Kill's Pretty Enemy
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  took issue with the alleged errors in enrollment information as described by
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  Russell, arguing that before the tribe considers legislation to revise blood quantum,
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  it should correct any inaccuracies in existing membership roles. What are you
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  guys going to do about those that were illegally enrolled? He said.
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  Senator Velma Pickett spoke in support of adopting a lineal descent policy,
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  the type of membership determined by a person's ancestry. This isn't the
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  only option, she said, of the proposed legislation. This isn't a step
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  away from blood quantum. It only extends the expiration date. Since, Leslie
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  Cabote, Josie Passes, and Glenn Plentyhawk were among the legislation's most vocal
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  supporters. Cabody criticized lawmakers opposing arguments as being rooted in fear. Supporting
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  the blood quantum revision, she said, exercised the tribe's sovereignty and helped
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  ensure the tribe's future. Blood quantum is not a legitimate deciding factor
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  of whether Absaluke people walk the face of this earth or not,
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  she said, Our decision is to decide that as long as the
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  grass grows, the rivers flow, there shall be recognized, enrolled members of
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  the Absoluke nation that America and everybody else will have to deal
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  with. We need to assure that. Passes similarly characterized opposing arguments as
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  fear based and urged the legislature to consider the community's children. We
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  have several little Indian kids running around this reservation who are enrolled
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  in other tribes, who live here, who are crow, who dance traditional,
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  who speak the language, who sing, she said. That's their identity, but
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  on paper they’re not enough. They are one tick mark away, two
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  tick marks away. We're telling them that they are not crow, and
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  we are not considering them. The legislation, she said, sends a message
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  to young people that you matter, you're crow. I see you and
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  you count. What's next? After almost two hours of debate, the legislature
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  voted the bill down on a ten seven vote. Several lawmakers said
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  that while the bill is dead, the debate about blood quantum isn't
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  over. The chairman could bring another piece of legislation for the body
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  to consider or issue an executive order revising blood quantum. The tribe
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  can also change its membership requirements via constitutional referendum. Standing in the
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  chamber after the vote, Chairman White Clay echoed the sentiment that some
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  Senators voted out of fear. I just believe that they're scared of
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  change, he said. They fear these new things. Maybe the next generation
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  won't. This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed
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  through a partnership with the Associated Press.