*Posted this on my Facebook Page on 31 October 2019 Reposting this here as this issue is important to me and mine. **Reminder, I am allowing comments on this: Be Respectful or your comment will not be posted.
Yesterday’s TEC meeting was interesting. Yours truly lost it during the last few minutes of the meeting. Why? You are rightfully asking yourselves. Course, those that know me, know that I can and do lose my temper. And this is one of the traits I inherited from my mother who’s nickname was “Tiger Lady” and so we received the name “Tiger Cub” from her.
T’any rate, the issue was about the Land transfer, which as our fearless leader, Cathy, and her cohorts on the TEC have a revised resolution in which the individual reservations have the option to “opt out” of this. Well, five reservations want their land titles transferred back to the Bands. Only one doesn’t. Therein lies the crux of the matter.
If you’ll look at the link I posted, which reminds me, I need to download the actual file of the lands in question. If you’ll note all the red areas on the Bois Forte reservation and compare that to the others, well, speaks for itself.
Deer Creek, which you’ll also note doesn’t have any red lines. Why? is another question surely popping up in your minds as of this moment. Perhaps it’s already popped up there. Well, FYI, that land is where the Soreyes branch of my family resided until it became impossible to do anything there due to the allotment period of history. That particular land is divided between thousands of heirs of the original allottees. Hmm, methinks that spelling is a bit off. This explains why most of the Soreyes branch moved to Canada.
The Wakemup branch of my family had land in the village, which due to circumstances beyond our control, was sold to various interests. Now the Wakemup branch is scattered around Minnesota. The only branch that stayed in the village was my mother. She tried living off the rez for exactly three months of her life. Months, which were spent in Mpls, that taught her the real meaning of home, amongst other things.
Those months, in part, also explain the things she taught us about our home, our land and most important, our family. These things are:
1. All this land was and still is ours. We have the right to hunt, fish and gather in the ceded territory. Since the current “owners” of the land have a different viewpoint, the Band decided to enter into an agreement with the State and receive monies for our right to hunt, fish and gather. This is the reason for the issuance of the 1854 Treaty identification cards. And it is also the reason why we receive a check once a year which, since it is in effect subsistence money, is not taxed and is not to be counted as income for tax purposes. $800 or so isn’t enough to feed, clothe and shelter one person or a family of four for the whole year. If we all exercised our rights to gather, hunt, fish in the manner our ancestors did, it might get us through the winter. Might not. I remember my father going out to do drives during the winter months and the men getting enough deer to carry us through the coldest months.
So consider this when you go to pay for those licenses to hunt and fish. Those state licenses allow us to hunt and fish anywhere in the state, not just in the ceded territory. How do I know this? My sister has been trying for years to turn me into a fisherman. And to fish at Farmer John’s one does need a state license. Oh there is more that could be said about this issue. Not the point of this little diatribe in which I mean the long discourse, not the irony, satirical or bitter definition either. (Oh the vagaries of the English language.)
2. Our home was, is and always will be here on the Bois Forte Reservation, in particular, Nett Lake. My mother was one of the few actually born and raised right in the village. Most of the rest were born in hospitals miles from the village. One of the hardest lessons I had to learn from her was the need to cooperate and get along with everyone, not just my siblings. Oh, we get mad at each other, but we were never allowed to carry a grudge. We had to work things out. Along with this was the need to accept things that we couldn’t control, such as the majority’s wishes in matters even when we knew it wasn’t the ideal situation. We could figure out how to change it and do it in a respectful manner. Now, what this meant is we must pick and choose our battles. Not jump on any old bandwagon, not knowing where it is going or if they’re going to get there or even who is driving the thing.
3. Our family. Oh, this is hard, because of all the memories I have of my mother and my father and the things they tried to teach us. In the days before they died, the main thing they worried about was leaving us behind. We had to reassure each one, especially on their death bed, that we would be all right, that we could make it without them and they could travel on to see their family who were waiting for them to join them. I know exactly the feeling cause I look at the grandchildren, my sons, my nieces and nephews and can only hope they’ve learned enough to be able to tell me, my sisters and brothers that they’ll be alright, they’ll make it, they know enough and we can join our families with joy when the time comes.
So, what does all this have to do with the interesting time at the TEC?
I got tired of being respectful for people who claim to have respect for “the People, the land, the animals” all the while putting others down just because we were respectful of their “right?” to name call us just because we don’t go around hollering about this, that and the other thing that is important to us. We stood up when it was asked for a demonstration of the point of order and respect be demonstrated. And when I heard the real reason for the “speaking out” of this particular bus load of Band members: asking the TEC to rescind the resolution in the matter of the Land Title Transfer, well...enough said. Take a look at that map of MCT Lands once again and make up your own mind. There was a call to also put this to a referendum vote. Well. When I was leaving the room to come home, I heard a call for people to stay and strategize for the petitioning for the removal of A L L the TEC members for which I only have this in answer. I left.
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Friday, November 1, 2019
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
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.
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.
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.)
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 |
 |
| Descendancy Chart |
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.)
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Search Engines
The records most have heard about through ads are the ones held at Ancestry.com. Census records come immediately to mind. Surprise, surprise. surprise. Researching by just entering a name on a search engine has netted me much information about my family. In fact, I was astounded by the number of entries for some names. Course, I was one of the very few who actually looked at search pages number 4 and higher. Point, I found myself two hours later, finally getting to search results that were basically the same as those earlier.
I was even amazed at the number of lateral names that came up in this search. Now, here is where you will need to be very careful in clicking the links. This is how I came across some photos, articles in the New York Times that pertained to my ancestors and their friends, colleagues and clan. I've come across relatives names mentioned in books that had been written.
When I mentioned some of the documents to my mom, more information about our family was unearthed. She gave me names of people I could talk to as well as more of the history of our village. Other family had more information about how many of these books were written.
Search engines can point you in directions to follow. They can't if you don't have much more information than a name, so try to have as much info as you can if your ancestor has a common name. A couple times, while searching for something completely different, pages have come up. So have a few key words that might help you in your search. And have a notes file on your computer for copy/paste of the url (and a description of the contents) where you found the page as bookmarking can quickly get to the hundreds if you're not careful. The Wayback Machine isn't as helpful if you don't have the url. And many pages have been taken down at someone's request.
I will be featuring interviews with tribal historians. Family Legacy is much more than genealogy, as my journey to trace family history has taken many turns. One thing I've learned is to stop the knee jerk reaction of anger when reading some of the documents. Featuring tribal historians may help us to see things in a different light.
I was even amazed at the number of lateral names that came up in this search. Now, here is where you will need to be very careful in clicking the links. This is how I came across some photos, articles in the New York Times that pertained to my ancestors and their friends, colleagues and clan. I've come across relatives names mentioned in books that had been written.
When I mentioned some of the documents to my mom, more information about our family was unearthed. She gave me names of people I could talk to as well as more of the history of our village. Other family had more information about how many of these books were written.
Search engines can point you in directions to follow. They can't if you don't have much more information than a name, so try to have as much info as you can if your ancestor has a common name. A couple times, while searching for something completely different, pages have come up. So have a few key words that might help you in your search. And have a notes file on your computer for copy/paste of the url (and a description of the contents) where you found the page as bookmarking can quickly get to the hundreds if you're not careful. The Wayback Machine isn't as helpful if you don't have the url. And many pages have been taken down at someone's request.
I will be featuring interviews with tribal historians. Family Legacy is much more than genealogy, as my journey to trace family history has taken many turns. One thing I've learned is to stop the knee jerk reaction of anger when reading some of the documents. Featuring tribal historians may help us to see things in a different light.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Aha or eureka!
Good thing not much changes in the world of research, genealogical or otherwise, as it has been a while since I've posted on this particular blog. Mostly, because I've been experimenting with different items on my other blog with an eye to maybe using those techniques on this one. So far, have no plans to change this blog.
I started my family research at the beginning, of course. Luckily for me, we have elders here in the village who remember some of the people mentioned on the various census reports. That is the first place you start, as your journey along the genealogical path will not always be what you expect. Particularly with the difficulty of Anishinbeg/English, upon occasion, Scot, Irish, French names. Those seem to be the predominant ones I've found in my search along the tree branches.
Of interest is the knowledge you gain just from entering your living family members into your tree. There is a need to observe the privacy and confidentiality laws when doing this part of the search. Some family are fine with it and others are iffy. A n d then, there are those who absolutely refuse, for one reason or another to be listed anywhere.
You will gain a greater respect for the history you were forced to study in school. Because you will need this knowledge. Did you know that the first Census reports of the Anishinabeg were taken by a Lt. in the Army at LaPointe Agency? Do you know where the LaPointe Agency was? And did you realize the Tomah Indian School was important to you also? Do you know that the Tomah Indian School is now a Veteran's Hospital? Why do I mention these two places?
The LaPointe Agency is where the start of most of the records you will be looking at began. And Tomah Indian School is where many of your grandparents and great grandparents went. These are located in Wisconsin. So, the Wisconsin Territory is another place you will need to know a little about in order to get hold of records. And don't forget the years that Minnesota and Wisconsin became territories/states. And the further back, you will need to know which country was in control of our homeland as there are more records you can find. And the fur traders.
Why, you ask, are fur traders important? Because of the Hudson's Bay records. They have records of payments to Indians. {http://pam.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/45830/1/5/17711?RECORD} And where are these records located? Why, they are located in Canada. And how do you gain access to these records if you are American? http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/research.html is the webpage containing the information needed to continue research. Now, some of the Indian payment records might not be pertinent to your research. That was an example. And I just checked at the Manitoba holdings website. The archival site has indexed some biographical information.
Now, my point is...if you are searching for ancestry earlier than 1860 or thereabouts, you may need these records as US records, as such, aren't available. Maybe military or in private holdings. How will you know? Doing the research. In the long run, we, as Anishinabeg, may not be able to get the documentation required by genealogists for years earlier than 1860 or thereabouts. We have a rich oral tradition. This does not satisfy the genealogical requirements per se.
And why did I title this Aha or eureka? Because many of you have only just started to realize the importance of those boring, dull, history courses.
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