Interview · South Dakota · Faith Spotted Eagle · OSEU 2
Themes: Land & stewardship, Kinship & family, Identity & belonging, Spirituality & ceremony, Values & generosity, Community & responsibility, Listening & observation, Children & young people
Learn About questions
What is blood quantum?
What is bloodism?
How is assigning a blood quantum number similar to the Concentration Camps of the past?
What is lineal descendency?
How are blood quantum and lineal descendency similar? Different?
How is blood quantum/lineal descendency tied to rights to vote and to land claims?
Learn From questions
How would I describe my own “blood quantum” and does it affect how I see myself…my identity?
What does my own lineal descendency look like?
Are there ancestral roles that I connect to from my own family lineage?
Are there rights or privileges in my life that are determined by my lineal descendency?
Transcripts
Enrollment & Blood Quantum - Faith Spotted Eagle - OSEU 2
Watch this interview on YouTubeI think that enrollment probably started out in a really bad place because essentially…you know how we have words like “adultism”...there is a word…I’ll call it “bloodism.” And so, it was determined that to be identified as a native…and it was almost like a bloodline…that you had to be assigned a number…like a concentration camp number. And then you had to be…determined how much blood you have. It was actually a very inhumane thing to do. But as time when on in the linear world that we live in, it was tied to the land…that you couldn’t be seen as an Indian unless you had a number and you had blood quantum. And in the end result…at the end of the day, it’s not a good thing because if it’s based on blood quantum…and the way fractions work…if you marry outside of your tribe, eventually the blood quantum is going to go down…and there’s not going to be anymore. There are some literature sites that say that’s what the government intended…that eventually we would bleed out in a sense…and that we wouldn’t have blood quantum…and that the government wouldn’t have that trust responsibility. The way that the tribes are addressing that they’re turning to what they are calling “lineal descendancy” which is stating that if you can tie back to a certain ancestral role… or something will document that you were a part of that tribe…usually it’s a role…then you’re just part of that lineal descendancy…which makes more sense in the long run. And the challenges for that…that the young people that are listening to will have to figure out…is how do you tie that and layer it so that some people will be allowed to vote because they live on the reservation… and who will be allowed to and share land claims… and so that will be a very long discussion that the young people that are listening to this… especially the native young people… they’ll have to really think and pray on that. How do we end up changing that as we go forward in history?
Resource text
Learn ABOUT Learn FROM
(deep listening, information) (deep sharing, transformation)
1. What is the blood quantum? 1. How would | describe my own “blood
2. What is bloodism? quantum” and does it affect how | see
3. Howis the assigning of a blood quantum myself...my identity?
number similar to the Concentration 2. What does my own lineal desecendency
Camps of the past? look like?
4. What is lineal descendency? 3. Are there ancestral roles that | connect
5. Howare blood quantum and lineal to from my own family lineage?
descendency similar? Different? 4. Are there rights or privileges in my life
6. Howis blood quantum/lineal that are determined by my lineal
descendency tied to rights to vote and descendency?
to land claims?
From the current WoLakota source page:
Enrollment & Blood Quantum
Faith Spotted Eagle
Transcript
(deep listening, information)
(deep listening, transformation)
Some indexed text was extracted from scanned material. Check the original source for exact wording and spelling.
Source materials
Supplied transcript document. Text preserved as supplied; spellings and transcription uncertainties have not been corrected.
Additional source transcripts
Enrollment & Blood Quantum
Enrollment & Blood Quantum - Faith Spotted Eagle -
OSEU 2
I think that enrollment probably started out in a really bad place because
essentially…you know how we have words like “adultism”...there is a word…I’ll call it
“bloodism.” And so, it was determined that to be identified as a native…and it was
almost like a bloodline…that you had to be assigned a number…like a concentration
camp number. And then you had to be…determined how much blood you have. It was
actually a very inhumane thing to do. But as time when on in the linear world that we
live in, it was tied to the land…that you couldn’t be seen as an Indian unless you had a
number and you had blood quantum. And in the end result…at the end of the day, it’s
not a good thing because if it’s based on blood quantum…and the way fractions
work…if you marry outside of your tribe, eventually the blood quantum is going to go
down…and there’s not going to be anymore. There are some literature sites that say
that’s what the government intended…that eventually we would bleed out in a
sense…and that we wouldn’t have blood quantum…and that the government wouldn’t
have that trust responsibility. The way that the tribes are addressing that they’re turning
to what they are calling “lineal descendancy” which is stating that if you can tie back to a
certain ancestral role… or something will document that you were a part of that
tribe…usually it’s a role…then you’re just part of that lineal descendancy…which makes
more sense in the long run. And the challenges for that…that the young people that are
listening to will have to figure out…is how do you tie that and layer it so that some
people will be allowed to vote because they live on the reservation… and who will be
allowed to and share land claims… and so that will be a very long discussion that the
young people that are listening to this… especially the native young people… they’ll
have to really think and pray on that. How do we end up changing that as we go forward
in history?