Mother's Legacy: Identity

Today's post concerns an issue that affects all Natives and that is enrollment and blood quantum and the question of identity.  Please refer to the following charts as I explain something my mother was trying to remember.  She'd told me that blood quantum didn't have anything to do with math or fractions. Now, after researching my family history, I know what she meant.  If you try to use a pedigree or ancestor chart to figure out your blood quantum, you may be in for a surprise.

I am on the rolls as 1/2 MCT blood. What this means is 1 out of my two parents is MCT blood and all her ancestors are MCT.  My father is from another tribe, well, band, as he is Chippewa, at least 3/4 cause I haven't found all his ancestors yet.  His blood quantum would be 6 out of 8 of his direct ancestors are St. Croix.  Where confusion enters is that not all tribes/bands have the same degree of blood quantum and some use lineal descent.  We have 1/4 as the minimum and St. Croix has 1/2.  I am not able to be enrolled at St. Croix as the number of my direct St. Croix ancestors does not equal 1/2 while the number of my direct ancestors with MCT blood is more than 1/4.  Where the math comes in is to reduce the fraction down to see if it equals 1 out of 4, i.e. 17 (parents)/(out of )64 is 2/8 or 1/4 and that is the only thing the math means.

Ancestor (Pedigree) Chart

Most people who think of or do research, are familiar with the Ancestor Chart.  It's how most genealogical charts are done.  There is a Standard for doing genealogy charts: direct paternal ancestors are the left side and maternal lines on the right.  Without a color chart, it gets confusing if you don't know the standards.  Colors are used to differentiate lines to make it easier to see as well as the ease of printing now that we have computers.

Descendancy Chart

What is actually used to determine enrollment is a Descendancy chart of someone on the basic rolls of the Bands in the MCT and St. Croix who may not have all been full blood.  Now it is harder to see the exact relationship as siblings marry different people and their children's quantum could be be different depending on the other"s enrollment.  So not all the cousins will have the same blood quantum, even though one line is the same.  To fully understand the importance of this, take a look at one of the public charts of Royal Houses of Europe.  Their kings and queens must be a descendant, preferably direct, of their first king/queen, or possess royal blood to some degree, which is why they've kept such records.

And there you have it.

Ancestor or pedigree charts are easier to understand than descendancy ones.  So don't use a pedigree or ancestor chart when you are trying to find your blood quantum.  Rather, use it to further your knowledge and understanding of your relatives.  You must use a descendancy chart to determine blood quantum.  Further information on descendancy charts can be found at  https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Genealogical_Charts_(National_Institute). Let this be a start in your search for knowledge.

Now, for those who are trying to get enrolled, there are issues much more confusing than the two touched upon, such as lineal descent.  First and foremost, in my opinion, is that of our culture and traditions concerning family which are quite different from that of the dominant society.  Traditionally, family generally means all our relatives.  When we introduce ourselves, we start with our name, our parents, our Clan, then Tribe.  (Notice, we do not say Band.  Though, nowadays, it is gradually being added, an influence from our recent past.)  The reason for this is to show our place within our society which has certain expectations that do not match with dominant society.

When my mother struggled to remember exactly how the determination of blood quantum worked, it was because she had an entirely different view of family.  We always hold Tribe, than Clan, then family as the basis for our identity.  We know exactly where we fit in the scheme of life as we see it.  What was, and still is, hard to assimilate is a different idea of family.

In the old days, when a parent died leaving a child behind, he or she did not have to be adopted into another family.  They already were a part of a family.  The parent's siblings, aunts/uncles or  grandparents, if still alive, took over the raising of that child.  If no one in the family was available, then a Clan or Tribal member took it over.

My mother's struggle had to do with the working down and separating out the exact parents of a child or descendancy, which has become more important than our traditional viewpoint of the child's  identity.  That, in a nutshell-albeit a simplistic explanation-is the problem with blood quantum.

How can a child be more Indian than his brother or sister?  This question was, is and will be asked until we, as a Tribe, answer it for ourselves.  Do we, as a Tribe, accept that the parents must already be enrolled as more important than our traditional view of the child already being a member of the Tribe and Clan by virtue of the mother and/or father whether legally recognized or not?   Directly correlated to this is the concept of legitimacy of the child which was introduced by the concept of marriage in the Christian church as opposed to our traditional view of marriage.  In the aforementioned Royal House charts, all claimants to the throne had to be legitimate: parents with royal blood married within the Church.  What has this to do with our Enrollment Records, you may be wondering?

Well, everything.  This was, and still is, a tactic of the dominant society and especially the Church in their "conquering" of the world: the introduction of legitimacy of people being born into the Church as the basis for membership.  If you weren't, well you were a pagan.  Our society says you are a member of our society before you are born, by the fact of being in your mother's womb.  Theirs says you have to accept their idea of membership or have it accepted for you i.e.baptism or adoption.  Thus, a descendant of someone listed on the Rolls is the only legally recognized member of our society in their viewpoint.  And since the U.S. government technically won, their rules abide.

Many of our people "adopted" these ways, thus we have conflict between those views.  In the spirit of the Royal Houses, only "legitimate members" can be Accepted.  In the spirit of our tradition, all babies born to a mother and father are Accepted whether married in the Church or not.  Keep in mind our "freedom of religion" was only granted in 1978.  Ahh, will be checking on civil marriages at some point.

The question of identity is so easy for myself, yet I see others struggle with it.  All because there are opposing concepts of parentage, marriage, society.  And it is thanks to my mother, Marjorie Alice, a Christian, that I am able to follow our traditional ways whilst my siblings can follow the ways of my father, Axel Sr., also a Christian.  She ensured that we treated each other with the respect due brothers and sisters.  We were never allowed to name call for whatever reason or answer to her.  If we fought, we had to find a way to resolve it.  We celebrated each other's accomplishments and learned to get along with each other.  She got her strength from her parents and grandparents.

I, Niiganabiik, Mildred Holmes in the English, Bear Clan, Ogiichidakwe of the Aniishinabe, daughter of Marge/Axel, granddaughter of John/Mabel and Henry/Rachel, greatgranddaughter of Frank/Alice, Charles/Jesse, George/Catherine, and Hartley/Judy, *greatgreat granddaughter of Wakiimawab/?, William/Mary, am my mother's daughter.  I hope this topic has answered one or two questions you may have on the subject of enrollment and blood quantum as well as clarify your idea of identity.

*These two lines were of more interest-mother's and father's direct paternal line, the others will be added as I get the info. (Name translations, if any.)