“Is it because people want to feel like they are more American? . . . Or is it because there is some perceived benefit that they can exploit?”
This has been my question since I started reading this article. I can understand why some politicians or certain people who have the media attention would want to make such claims, but I don't understand why there would be a sudden interest in tribal affiliation since the early 2000s.
educating themselves about the legacy of racism and settler colonialism.
I think this is the most important part of this article. Because by doing so, we can have a better engagement with the national politics.
Donald Trump,
I just learned that he is second-generation Scots-German American.
peaks volumes to enrolled Cherokee people,
I read that this interest in claiming to be of Cherokee blood is that because of their long history of their interest in "exogamous marriages" or marrying outside their tribe that was part of their tradition in the 17th and 18th century, so it makes it even harder to conclude tribal affiliation
The difference between my story and Elizabeth Warren’s is that I found a document”—her father’s birth certificate, which listed the name of her Cherokee grandfather.
This is means that there is a proof that her grandfather was considered "Indian enough" and it is not hard to imagine if he was deprived from certain rights as a direct result of this
The Lumbees were ultimately denied land allotments and federal acknowledgment because many lacked a sufficient level of “Indian” features.
to her point, Warren can be denied tribal citizenship because she is not " Indian enough . ( where are many tribes just require lineal descent )
Indians possess special rights that discriminate against other Americans, rather than sovereign status.”
This sentence completely changed my idea about her! I hope I am not readying this on a "out of context" basis. I wonder if she would consider affiliation with one of those tribe who were never able to gain federal recognition? how would those tribes prove their tribal identity to the federal government ???
This is not the first time a scientific method has been deployed against the interests of indigenous nations’ criteria for belonging
referring to the "blood quantum"
does not recognize Warren as kin, just as it has never recognized DNA test results as a qualification for enrollment. Kiel argued that Warren’s actions, unwittingly or not, reinforce notions that tribes are merely racial genetic groups.
I agree that the DNA should not be used as a tool to determine enrollment, especially because of the fact that historically to be related by "blood" has been used against Native American as a tool of racial oppression
Kiel argued that Warren’s actions, unwittingly or not, reinforce notions that tribes are merely racial genetic groups.
to my understanding every tribe has its own considerations for enrolling kins, so it has to be a mutual agreement between the individual and the tribe.
about her Native American heritage.
I don't find it particularly problematic if someone ethnically identifies with a group considering the shared history of land and multi racial marriages, but I think it is very important to be clear about the reason she brought this affiliation right after she announced her candidacy
she insisted that her Indian links were real.
Does the tribe that she claims to be linked to have accepted her enrollment ???? I think because of the nature of tribe's recognition by the federal government, it is important to know this and figure out if politics play any major role in her claim
Malinda Maynor
on her interview with Jezebel, she also mentioned that nativity identity comes with actual tribal enrollment
run for president.
I think when it comes to having Native American heritage, it really matter who is making the claim. ( Although Warren has done a DNA test to prove hers ) and what is the purpose of it. I think she has made that claim when she was still in school and not politically involved, so for her it is part of her social identity.
“I Have a Native Ancestor”
I read on the Economist that there is actually a phenomenon called Cherokee Grandmother Syndrome, which occured because there was a sharp increase ( as Rgfreema mentioned ) in the numbers of people who identify as Native American and claim that they have " Cherokee blood" which is problematic because first, why other Native tribes are not considered and secondly, how did they exactly come to this conclusion that they are related to Cherokee tribe >
because we have always been and are now women who fight with a sense of our own value
family values is a big part of Native American culture and sterilization has a special/religious meaning for their community. and taking away their reproductive rights was devastating for both women and their tribes. So putting and end to sterilization was the only way of preserving the existence of their culture and their tradition.
because both strengths are necessary
The fact that between 1970-1975 over five million women were sterilized, put the whole community of Native Americans and the future of their tribes in danger
because nobody wants to be studied.
the eugenic studies ( the "science" of race improvement ) was popular around the world in the early 20th century, and they considered social problems like poverty as inherited diseases that would transmit to next generation, but this movement was considered unconstitutional by 1920s.
where we serve
yet another evidence showing that socioeconomic biases ( maybe second after race ) does not allow the cycle to break
because the great majority of us are domestic servants and we are not permitted to go to school even at night-time. We are cheap labor.
structural racism does not allow certain minorities to clim up the social ladder and it creates a cycle of poverty that becomes very hard to break by individuals, that's why addressing women's right issues by others who have some sort of power/influence is important
The raping, plundering, because of the greed of the United States of America for our natural resources, it is still yet a form of sterilization.
This is very true because the federal government robbed Native Americans of their lands and completely destroyed their future as a sovereign nation
completely sovereign people.
Native Americans were completely dependent on the federal government through Indian /health service ( IHS ) and Bureau of Indian Affairs ( BIA )
this conference i
Greek philosopher Plato had the same idea about selective and controlled breeding so that the superior race has the right to choose, but in Europe, most people came to the realization that this was an issue of racism not poverty. Because each person who is considered a consumer of food can also produce food.. and the rate of growth for each of these categories are not the same...
Why did we have to travel this dis-tance to come to you
This is exactly the question that came to my mind when I read that her speech was made in Geneva
“why have you not recognized us as sovereign people before?”177Therefore, I again state, we are the target for a total, final extermination of us as people.
The physicians who tool away these women's reproductive rights had racist beliefs about which race should reproduce
We are undergoing a modern form called sterilization, which has been going on for hundreds of years, to totally exterminate the Red man.
I think the fact that she opened her speech by addressing Native American women's sterilization as human rights violation was very important, because Native Americans were already a small minority who were victimized and blamed for the growing population after the 1960s.
related the issue of wom-en’s right
In comparison to other minorities who were the victims of sterilization, Native American women's situation was especially unique because of their tribal dependence
Established in Rapid City, South Dakota, in 1974 by an eclectic group of women,
I think the whole civil rights movements during the 1970s helped Native American woman initiate WARN, although it did not gain publicity as much as the other movements
Us
women's sterilization was a direct attack on the personal sovereignty of Indian women, and it was justified as a solution for poverty
often did not speak to the particular concerns of women.
because the media coverage was dominated by men
she agrees with the policy of separating Native children from their families
because before anything else, she was an employee in an institute that was ran and governed by the white officials.
We hear a great deal about developing leaders for leadership and are apt to forget that our girls are to be the sources of such leader-ship, too, for they represent our homemakers and homekeepers.”
her Ojibwe family thought her these values since she was still a child. I think her role in the Indian Service gave her the chance to go to different educational institute to discuss these ideas like how Native women have the most important role when it comes to leadership.
his Native college- preparatory high school
I think this shows that both Elizabeth and Cloud never stopped thinking about ways to help Natives get access to better education; the type of education that would put them into college but at the same time, didn't force the white values on them.
she decided to pursue health care,
I think that was a smart decision, given the urgency of this matter.
Upon the examination of one hundred and fifty children in our school, forty- three were found to be afflicted with trachoma.
When their health situation was this severe, I don't understand how anything else could matter at that time, let alone getting "quality education"
considering we do not use the state books
was that a choice that Elizabeth made ?
improve education for Native students.
I think above all, this was the most important thing that she did for others. Later on when Cloud and Elizabeth opened an institute for Native Americans, their primary goal was to prepare them for college so that they can have a better chance at accessing quality education.
through writing. It was also a way for her to show pride in Native history and Indigenous peoples’ accomplishments.4
I think if anyone ever read the school paper, he/she would understand that while the author admires the true beauty of the culture and the history of Indigenous people, she also never forgot about her true identity.
exotic objects for the benefit of Hampton
the most inhumane description one can imagine
but she leaves out
I think because revealing too much information to the public would have both of them expelled from Hampton.
roved helpful for obtaining financial support for Hampton.
because the federal government made founds available to these schools only if they proved that they were actively recruiting and "educating" Native Americans.
to merge with white society but rather to return to the reservations, where they could teach their people.
but doesn't that mean, going back to the reservations to each other people about English, Christianity and white culture ?
“the hand, the head and the heart” of youngsters
meaning the students learned how to think, how to act and how to live based on the white culture.
As we gathered around the table later a great wave of homesickness came over me
from a child's perspective, it is beyond comprehension to go back to your family and find new members that you have never met, feeling like a stranger who does not belong in the house anymore
Thus, through storytelling, Elizabeth participated in Ojibwe hub making, maintaining a connection to her Ojibwe mother, identity, and language—
her double identity ( social identity ) fueled her efforts to keep in touch with part of her identity that she adored the most ( her Ojibwe family )
Elizabeth accesses the stories of her people, her Ojibwe identity, hundreds of miles away, from a white- controlled boarding school.
she really did create a home away from home for herself and those kids who were going through the same things
She transforms a fund- raising letter, a potentially tedious boarding- school assignment, into a memory of beauty and an ancestral connection to an Ojibwe sense of place.
What was the point of these boarding schools? not only the kids were not "assimilated" but it must have been a traumatic experience for all of them that were separated from their families and their homes
such as girls working in the sewing room, laundry, kitchen and baking, and the boys working in the tailor shop, carpenter
the total opposite of the gender fluidity that was practice in Mary's house
which emphasized that girls should be confined to the domestic sphere.
this shows how progressive her Ojibwe family were in comparison to what the boarding school had to offer.
but she never looked them up.2
I think this is another point showing how content they were with their life and also how Mary was able to manage such a large family by herself
Mary could shoot a deer and skin it with one hand tied behind her back.
The irony is women like Mary who actually ran the farms, were not considered "head of house holds" and could not own the same farms that they ran.
Therefore, the SAI was a Native, gendered, intellectual, and activist hub that the Clouds relied on to fight in support of Indigenous land and interests
I can imagine that this was not a one-man's-war, and the fact each one of these leaders were focused on a particular civil right's issue that the Native American's were facing shows how important this organization was.
All these astute rhetorical strategies demonstrate Cloud’s Ho- Chunk intel-lectual prowess enhanced by his Yale educational training. While at Yale, he studied debate, oratory, and the colonizer’s own arguments. In these ways Cloud indigenized his colonial training to fight for the Apaches and against the federal government.1
he got into Yale, solely because of his qualifications and his intellect. but it was through his education that he could take these cases to officials and demand justice
prosperous, peaceful and contented
not even half of them survived during 15 years of imprisonment
under the supervision of the Military authorities,
he means as war prisoners
. a man who knows the region .
Not even his name of mentioned!
176 Apaches resettled in Mescalero, New Mexico, and 80 chose to stay in Oklahoma. Cloud wrote,
originally there were about 1500 of them, by the end of this settlement, there were less than 300 of them left
, Cloud presented his brief,
It is mentioned in different places that he was an excellent public speaker
his Yale training,
he was the first Native American who attended Yale.
Moreover, this letter demonstrates how hard Henry worked in support of the Apaches, including meeting with government officials and traveling to Washington DC to talk to the secretaries of the interior and war, establishing his place on the national stage as a young man.
to me, Cloud was someone who could speak and negotiate very well in support of his people in the time that Native Americans had no voice in the government.
Cloud agrees with government officials that only 80 acres would be available if indeed the number of acres was set, and the Apaches, Kiowas, and Comanches accepted the land appraisement.
This is not an ideal agreement, but without Cloud taking these cases to the federal government, they might not be able to take anything at all since they were war prisoners.
is to go to Washington and determine how the $300,000 appropriated is to be apportioned and to lay the matter before both the Sec. of Interior and Sec. of War. I shall see the Commissioner about . . . the Fort Sill matter also.1
I think these are the words of a man who wants to fight for his people and their rights but he also knows that he needs to go through the "process" of convincing the federal government that they are not giving the people what they have promised.
80 acres of good agricultural land for each head of household.
160 acres was promised initially
These superior lands had precious minerals and rich agriculture potential, while the land set aside for Natives was often insufficient for agricultural use and did not have water for irrigation.
This is how one "Act" can change the whole history for the generations. Depriving people from their rightful wealth and taking over their lands meant years of struggling and fighting for what was theirs to begin with.
endured severe weather.7
many of their children were sent away to Pennsylvania for schooling. Many of them died from tuberculosis.
Cloud applied the U.S. Constitution to help him fight for Geronimo and his band’s freedom.
I think it was really important that he was able to fight for the right of Native Americans through the constitution because ultimately this would help change the federal policies in favor of the Native Americans.
earned about the Apache struggle from Roe shows how Cloud used a colonial relationship with a white missionary for Native goals and objectives.
I think this was particularly important because of how slow information traveled. It shows that because of people he knew, he could use that information to eventually run a campaign in support of the prisoners.
Chiricahua Apaches from Fort Sill
who were war prisoners for about eight years deprived from most basic human rights: https://www.nps.gov/chir/learn/historyculture/post-apache-wars.htm
Cloud’s work with a wide range of Indigenous leaders gave him not only the opportunity to learn from other Natives and discuss Indigenous issues but also the chance to meet my grandmother, Elizabeth, during the aforementioned SAI conference.
this provided a sense of unity between all the leaders of different tribes, so that regardless of their tribal affiliation, they could address the most important issues that the Native Americans were facing like health care and civil rights.
Arthur C. Parker (Seneca), the first editor of the American Indian Magazine, and Charles E. Eastman (Dakota), the editor of Collier’s and other eastern magazines, as well as John Oskison (Cherokee), Gertrude Bonnin (Yank-ton Nakota), Marie Baldwin (Ojibwe), and Rosa B. LaFlesche (Ojibwe)
the idea of promoting unity between all tribes regardless of the tribe that each of these groups associated with, gave the Native Americans to discuss the issues they were facing in a more unified way and as a result have a better chance at resolving some of these issues like health care or education
It was a platform to fight for Indigenous concerns and rights.
I think because both the founders and the full members got their educations through the whites institutes they had a great way of addressing the Natives' issues and help with advocating for their rights because of their enhanced ability to be involved in different sectors of the society.
a Native pantribal hub of a select group of Native American leaders that supported dialogue regarding Native issues and ideas.
This was the first organization that ran by Native Americans fighting for their rights
found
1911