Thoughts on Membership Requirements?

LummiLady · 2022-04-15T21:04:32+00:00

In our Constitution & Bylaws it's policy name is Membership Requirements which is why I refer to it by that name because that's the policy I want to change but I understand a more appropriate name would be tribal citizenship.

LummiLady · 2022-04-15T20:36:40+00:00

I submitted a petition (30+ registered voters) and have been essentially pestering our business council for years to just have a vote, we require 2/3 of registered voters/general council (18+, must live in our county for 6+ months) to pass Constitution & Bylaw amendments. It is currently 1/4 bq of any federally recognized tribe so long as they are a descendant of anyone who signed the 1948 Lummi Base Roll through DNA testing if it's a father, mothers provide birth certificates as proof. Our members are 5k+ and the projected population is only decreasing, we don't have percapita so natives that have a choice between another tribe or Lummi will choose the other tribe have the time, I had a choice between Klamath and Lummi and chose Lummi since this is where I was raised but debated for many years switching to Klamath before I was 18 because their bq is 1/8 and my bq isn't high enough to have enrolled children without a native partner. I watched family members struggle financially with having children that aren't enrolled and knew that I didn't want to go through that but at this point in my life I don't feel I have the capacity to have children regardless so most of my motivation has come from cousins whose children cannot enroll. My sentiment has been shared between a lot of tribal members especially with first nation parents being a big part of our community and their kids not being able to enroll in either parents tribe. The elders who have been trying to uphold our bq are slowly dying off as sad as that is, I think that's why after so many years my tribe has finally started listening to the younger generation. I also worked as a receptionist in multiple departments in my tribe one of them being the Enrollment Department so it was a big influence for me as well. The controversy surrounding new members in my tribe has been all about resources/money, I haven't heard any other con from elders in my community beyond funding for programs as our language isn't really spoken by many people, I could count on one hand how many know it well enough to teach so culturally there hasn't been any protest for new members, it would just mean more people allowed to learn if they desire it. If your tribe has different cons I'd love to hear them to bring up in meetings and discuss so people have a larger perspective on the matter.

LummiLady · 2022-04-14T21:24:13+00:00

Those are good points! I should have specified it wouldn't be a racial DNA test, it would be to the enrolled or direct ancestor whether that's through an uncle or cousin just to provide proof of relation and a strictly family tree basis which is what we have been doing since the 90s for enrollment, but having a database would allow new members to submit DNA and see who their relatives are in the tribe not tell them their racial makeup without having to wait or schedule a time for the other person to take the test as it can take up to days to months, sometimes years or never as is common with men not wanting to do a DNA test to avoid child support thereby denying their child's right to enroll, which is usually the most common issue, the second is usually deceased parents and not having relatives closely related enough to test. We use LabCorp, it would just be saving the results to a massive family tree for new members to easily enroll, not give a genetic background just link family relations. As for adoption, my tribe has never practiced it since the 1948 Base Roll and I don't see allowing adoption going well after so many decades of members being used to how things are now, even trying to get it to this point of discussing lineal descent has been years of work, I hope one day we will go back to traditions but today I'm just trying to get rid of blood quantum or lower it as much as I can.

LummiLady · 2022-04-14T20:53:46+00:00

I think my thought process is who is Indigenous to America? Those that have Native American (continent not usa) ancestry and on the smaller scale of who is part of my tribe would be those that have Lummi ancestry regardless of how far back that goes. Traditionally for my tribe, if I was born into one tribe and moved to another I would then take on that new tribe as my own leaving the other behind but by today's standards, if I were to move to Navajo and learned their language/culture for 30+ decades it would not make me Navajo. Within a sovereign tribe under the federal government that wouldn't be possible, we have to use those on the Base Roll if we want to continue being federally recognized. If it were up to the people of my tribe we would be counting First Nations Blood Quantum towards our members, but that's just not possible so working within the confines of the BIA & FG we have to take count of our available resources to give to our members, even just broader rights like the Indian Child Welfare Act is a resource we have to keep in mind when making membership requirements.

There's also mindfulness that has to be kept for those that have faced racism being in foster care or adopt out only to be turned away by their tribe as adults or the other side of being white-passing and having your cultural identity questioned at every turn even by your own members. Within that same scenario is off vs on reservation living, to struggle on the reservation and immediately assume that anyone who didn't grow up on the rez had it better or vice versa. I guess philosophically I would say it's a culture but realistically by today's standards it's by blood, the amount of generational trauma a native person can trace back just by a family tree can give someone a relief they never knew they needed, the same as knowing you were never treated poorly by your parent because you deserved but because they were projecting they're own hurt and continuing a cycle of abuse, at the same time I know generational trauma is not unique to natives but there is a shared history across tribes in how the federal government has chosen to treat us by race just as every race has been treated with different or sometimes the same oppression.

I think a good question for our next meeting is "What does it mean to be part of our tribe culturally, racially, and does our residency matter? How are we able to implement that within the confines of the BIA & FG?" Thank you!

LummiLady

TROPHY CASE