"The Call"

["Craven, Jim" <jcraven@xxxxxxxxx>]

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Often I get what I call "The Call"--just got another one last week. It
starts with "Hi, my name is so and so, I was given your name by so and so,
and I think--or "know"--that my grandmother, grandfather or great
grandfather/grandmother was a "full-blood" [or some other asserted
blood-quantum] Blackfoot or Blackfeet or often it is with reference to
"blood-quantum" from some other nation (poor Cherokee are number one on the
list for some reason) and I want help to "document" my Indian blood...

Deep inside me, my blood begins to boil. Sometimes, when I am really busy
and not in a didactic mood, I just tell them to go to a private laboratory
and pay for a blood test and ask for a "percentile determination of the
presence of the Blackfoot/Blackfeet or Cherokee etc. gene." Most ot the time
they will say "Really? It's that easy? How much does one of those tests
cost?

Sometimes I am in the mood to probe further. When they assert their Cherokee
or whatever blood, I'll ask them what the proper name of the Cherokee (in
their language) is? (Tsalagi). None of them ever know. I'll ask which areas
or rezes their relations are supposedly from; they never know. I'll ask if
they have even been on one of the Rezes of the Nation whose "blood" they are
purporting to carry; they always answer no. I'll ask if they plan to go to
some of the rezes and to offer themselves to be of service to what they
claim to be "Their People"; they invariably answer "yeah, someday I want to
visit and learn about my roots--always expressed in terms of "their
interests" and "their needs". I'll ask them why they think, even if true,
that their asserted "blood-quantum" somehow makes them "part" Cherokee or
whatever and what exactly does that term "part" Cherokee mean exactly? Which
"part" of them is...? Then I hit them with a quote from a BIA document: "Set
the blood-quantum at one quarter, hold to it as a rigid definition of
Indians, let intermarriage proceed, and eventually Indians will be defined
out of existence. When that happens, the Federal Government will be finally
freed from its persistent Indian problem." And I ask them what they think
that means. Since they have asserted their supposed blood-quantum--and/or
are looking to document it--are they then implying that blood-quantum is a
test or THE test of Indianness? And if so, does that mean that the greater
the supposed blood-quantum the more "real Indian" one is? What about those
whose ancestors were Indians but who deny that they have any Indian "blood"
in them? Are they still Indians even when they do not want to be identified
as such? And who really knows all their ancestors and what their  own
"blood-quantums" really were? What will happen to the existence, survival
and prosperity of Indigenous Peoples if some degreee of "blood-quantum" is
the sole or main test of Indianness particularly when it is defined,
measured and certified by those bent on the extermination of Indigenous
Peoples? Or I'll ask "Why are you suddenly trying to discover your supposed
"blood quantum" now at your age?" "Why wasn't this an issue before now?"

Often I feel them getting restless or even angry. "Well I didn't call to get
a lecture, I just need some help in finding my roots or documenting my
blood-quantum." Really?  I ask them what they plan to do with it if they can
indeed get "certified" as having some Indian "blood-quantum." And here it
comes: "Well I wanted to get formally enrolled and maybe get some "Indian
money" for college. Or, "I have always been interested in Indians, I want to
find my roots and maybe even get involved in some Native groups (always in
the urban areas in which they live and never on the rezes) or do some Indian
ceremonies like Sun Dances etc". or "I am applying for a job and I listed
myself as Native American but they want some kind of documentation if I am
to get 'protected category' status. Sometimes they claim to be leftists and
want to join-in struggles for Native rights (which one can do without any
purported Indian blood-quantum) and claim they have been driven by their
"Indian blood" to do so (Why now?). Or perhaps they are writing on Native
issues and want some kind of "credentials" to be writing in this area as if
some mythical Indian blood-quantum confers instant credentials to write on
Indian issues (as if there are not "full-bloods" writing pure shit on Indian
issues and/or selling out).

I ask them if they are aware of the fact that the BIA in the U.S. and the
DIA in Canada were formed specifically to design and carry out programs to
exterminate and forcibly assimilate Indians and to destroy Indian nations
and take their lands. Most of the time they say they have heard something
like that "once went on" [as if it is the past only]. Then I ask them why
they would feel "proud" and feel like a "real Indian" having been
"recognized" and "certified" such by entities bent on the extermination of
all Indians. I ask them that if they get a card, will they really feel like
a real Cherokee or Blackfoot even without having ever been in Cherokee
Country, not speaking Cherokee, never having been of service to Cherokee,
never having been recognized as such by the traditional Cherokee but only by
the puppets of the U.S. Government. I ask them to consider the following
scenario: Imagine you are a French person in nazi-occupied France. Would you
feel "proud" of having been "recognized" and "certified" as a "real French
person" by the Vichy Government and/or by the nazi occupiers?

Then they usually hang up.

Jim C.


James M. Craven
Blackfoot Name: Omahkohkiaayo-i'poyi
Professor/Consultant,Economics;Business Division Chair
Clark College, 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd.
Vancouver, WA. USA 98663
Tel: (360) 992-2283; Fax: (360) 992-2863
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~blkfoot5
<http://www.home.earthlink.net/~blkfoot5>
Employer has no association with private/protected opinion
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present
controls the past." (George Orwell)
"...every anticipation of results which are first to be proved seems
disturbing to me...(Karl Marx, "Grundrisse")
FREE LEONARD PELTIER!!







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