"Indigenous and Alaska Native men died of 'legal intervention' at the highest rate when adjusted for population, with Indigenous men killed by police at a rate six times higher than white men in 2020."
via
@truthout
These words won't age well for us: "Indian country is part of the State, not separate from the State...[A]s a matter of state sovereignty, a State has jurisdiction over all of its territory, including Indian country."
The rising rhetoric that only federally recognized Tribal nations are legitimate, and that only members of federally recognized Tribal nations belong, represents a frightening brand of Tribal nationalism. It's neocolonialism, which threatens Tribal nationhood writ large.
On January 7th, from the Golden Globes red carpet,
@lily_gladstone
thanks her Blackfoot relative Rob Hall
@DeadDogLake
, for teaching her the Blackfoot language she spoke while making history.
The very next day he & his clan folk are disenrolled by Blackfeet Tribal politicians.
On Indigenous Peoples' Day, I recognize those of our Indigenous relatives who have been disenrolled, prohibited from disenrollment, disenfranchised, and persecuted by tribal politicians. You belong and your humanity matters.
This is demonstrably false:
"'If you’re not enrolled in a tribe, you are not subject to Indian federal law [&] all of the trauma that happened under any of those terrible policies' such as the forced removal of Native children & placement into boarding schools and foster homes."
On Sept. 10, the Quinault Nation, under the leadership of President Guy Capoeman, amended their Constitution to eliminate fictional blood quantum as a metric of belonging. Instead "[a]ny person who has a biological parent or...grandparent who is currently enrolled," will belong.
End Tribal enrollment moratoria; enroll Indigenous babies and children. Stop disenrollment; honor the Ancestors. Replace Indian blood quantum; it’s fictional and racial and undermines sovereignty. Revitalize Indigenous kinship systems; that’s where our knowledge really lies.
@RionRamirez
@BigIndianGyasi
@ewarren
Won't weigh in on her apology or anybody's acceptance, but this is a remarkable letter. For any Congressperson or Presidential candidate, it shows a striking level of understanding about Indian Country's current state.
Please pause to reflect on these facts. Then please reflect on what you can do to change the status quo. Our collective future depends on it.
#Indigeneity
We welcome
@rebecca_mehra
as our new Research Manager. Rebecca holds an MA & BA from
@Stanford
. She is training for the 2021 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in the 800 & 1500 meter races. She also ran
@TheBroadman
's successful Bend City Council campaign in 2020.
20 years ago today my auntie took her own life. She inspired my sobriety but left a hole in our hearts. My mom also suffered from suicidal ideation. I lived my childhood on edge. Like love, pain emanates. Please love yourself.
We all live in fear of disenrollment. Every single one of us. The threat of disenrollment is why we do not freely speak our minds. Let’s not fool ourselves.
#StopDisenrollment
I tell all my indigenous disenrollee clients to continue to check the "American Indian/Alaska Native" box on all forms, be it the federal census or a college application. No tribal politician can steal their birthright. ✔️
"Per capita, Native people were stopped nearly nine times as frequently as White people, and Black people were stopped over five times as frequently as White people."
I'll soon publish "The Federal Indian Blood Quantum" on SSRN. It will eventually appear in the second rendition of the book, "The Great Vanishing Act: Blood Quantum and the Future of Native Nations." Here's the very beginning of the essay. Let's exist in truth, not fiction.
The Pretendian episode of Rutherford Falls is great. Highlights that Indigenous belonging isn't binary; it's not simply a matter a tribal ID card or CDIB. But also spotlights those who take advantage of the ambiguity. Appreciate the nuance
@janaunplgd
@Bobbydues
@MichaelGreyeyes
.
@dallasgoldtooth
, in the very beginning of
@RezDogsFX
season 3, episode 1, makes this hilariously powerful statement about Indigenous belonging. It is remarkable that Sterlin Harjo questions Tribal nationalism in this way, while most prominent Oklahoma Indians refuse to. Bravo.
It's ALL Indigenous human rights. MMIWG. ICWA Boarding schools. Religious freedoms. Free speech. Disenrollment. We can't afford to pick and choose which human rights we fight for.
Over 75 years later, Indigenous persons remain the only citizens or residents of the United States who are not uniformly guaranteed civil rights protection.
Our nation’s first anti-discrimination law was passed in Alaska in 1945, paving the way for national advancements in civil rights.
This wouldn’t have been possible without the work of Tlingit activist Elizabeth Peratrovich.
#NativeAmericanHeritageMonth
@jbendery
@RomancingNope
You vastly overstate your case. I agree there are many, many more pressing issues in Indian Country, and have written as much. But Warren's political DNA-testing ploy is pressing to many in Indian Country, who are worried about tribal existential issues. You've done a disservice.
This young brother is free. He travelled across the state to dance with and for his incarcerated relatives. Monroe Corrections Center Pow Wow, September 9, 2023
@NDNlawyer
Elder Auntie Ollie Oshiro, age 86, makes her way to her eviction "hearing." She is with her daughter but has no lawyer. I've been warned of criminal trespass if I tried to attend. This is not "sovereignty" or "self-determination." This is cruelty of the most evil kind.
"For the Creek Freedmen descendants today, disenrollment has meant the loss of cultural identity, including recognition of the Creek Nation's practice of slavery [and] incalculable material losses across generations..." via
@nbcnews
Where I stand: My firm sues cops for killing Indigenous people. We walk our talk. We pull no punch. Cops should not answer 911 calls for welfare checks. They're unqualified and untrained to do much else than shoot or suffocate and kill the mentally ill. Reform is needed.
Ute Chairman gets all Suge Knight at the Source Awards, shouting at state recognized Tribes in attendance at NCAI: “Get some federal recognition!” There are reports of physical altercations in the hallways.
@NCAI1944
has completely lost its way.
@PreetBharara
It's worth mentioning, he was caught at a port, having arrived to Port Angeles, Washington by ferry from Victoria, Canada. No wall would have prevented his terrorism.
Today, for the first time in its 76 years,
@NCAI1944
resolved to affirm the inherent sovereign right of Native Nations to decide who belongs as citizens, and to recognize the Indigenous human/civil right to belong, free from discrimination. NCAI will form a Task Force.
The first woman to ever be barred by and to appear before
@Scotus
, Belva Lockwood, argued and won U.S. v. Cherokee Nation, on behalf of the Cherokee Nation, in 1906. Had no idea. ✊🏽
First, there are several "Indian federal laws" that apply to non-enrolled or disenrolled Indigenous people. ICWA, most notably. Second, countless non/disenrolled Indigenous people suffer trauma from federal forced removals, boarding schools & foster care.
As we close out
#NativeAmericanHeritageMonth
, let's realize there could one day be no Indigenous heritage to celebrate if tribal blood quantum, enrollment moratoria & disenrollment persist.
Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis was once disenrolled from her Pueblo for not doing, as a tribal court judge, what her Pueblo's leaders told her to do. She has since been brought back home and re-enrolled. This part of her story only makes today more glorious.
#StopDisenrollment
“What blood quantum does is racialize American Indian identity,” [Jill Doerfler] said. “It is an outside concept used to disenfranchise Native people and tribes from their legal and political status [and] to eliminate ongoing treaty obligations.”
What good is tribal sovereignty unless Indigenous persons are ensured the human rights of belonging, employment, housing, health, safety, etc., by their own governments?
Lily Gladstone is a Blackfeet descendant. If/when she wins Oscar, will all the Tribal nationalists who've penetrated Hollywood cheer? Will those who believe only federally recognized tribes and enrolled members belong, celebrate her historic accomplishment? Will there be selfies?
Received a high compliment when told that an entire tribal enrollment committee listened to the blood quantum/disenrollment/kinship episode of
@NativeApprops
,
@matikawilbur
's amazing All My Relations podcast--and it's changed their thinking of who belongs and how.
#ReviveKinship
“All My Relations” podcast taping with the amazing Charlotte Logan, Tommy Miller, Matika Wilbur, Dr. David Wilkins, and
@NativeApprops
, regarding issues of tribal belonging, kinship, disenrollment, blood quantum. THAT’s wassup. 🙏🏽✊🏽
It’s not every day you see not one but two Indigenous relatives in
@TIME
, helping change the world and furnish hope. We see you brother
@wakiyan7
. 🙌🏽
The R word mascot has fallen, but:
The Muscogee Creek Freedmen are still disenfranchised.
Phenotypical racism remains common in Indian Country.
Racial blood quantum is still used by countless tribes.
Tribal politicians disenroll members by the thousands.
And we sit quiet.
I've published "The Federal Indian Blood Quantum Fiction" on SSRN.
"[A]ny metric for Indigenous national belonging should be rooted in kinship, not race—and in truth, not fiction."
🩸➗
Your occasional reminder that the biggest Pretendians are Disenrollment Chiefs and other Tribal autocrats who deny our relatives and children their birthrights.
@opalina100
@RomancingNope
I can tell you, as one reporter in DC, that's an issue I plan to cover. I reported a bunch on Savanna's Act last month (and the single GOP congressman who was blocking it + ultimately tanked it) and I'm sticking with it until it's passed.
Over 60
@nooksack306
kinfolk, including Elders and young families, have lived in fear of tribal police arriving to their homes with eviction orders, for the last six months. Nobody should live like this, especially the first peoples of these lands. But this is Indian Country.
After 12 years, we’re no longer taking on intra-Tribal civil rights cases. Someday I’ll write about it but here it is: If a Tribal politician wants to eradicate a Tribal member, there’s no bill of rights or anything else stopping them. And nobody in government gives a damn.🚫⚖️
The Five Tribal Freedmen were not emancipated until 1866. Countless Freedmen descendants have never obtained a modicum of justice or reparation through Five Tribal citizenship. It’s high time to bring them all home. Every single one.
#JuneTeenth2021
#HonorTheTreaties
Juneteenth – which became a federal holiday on Thursday – recognizes June 19, 1865, when a Union Army general arrived in Galveston, Texas, and declared the end of slavery after the Civil War.
Yesterday President Robbins delivered a heartfelt, tearful apology to
@uarizona
Indigenous SOAR students, who graciously accepted his apology with tears and good words of their own. Let’s hope this learning lesson for the university sticks and translates into action/resources.
I stand in solidarity with the Native students at UA. These types of incidences happen all the time and the sad/frustrating part in all of this is the pervasive dismissal and erasing that occurs, in this case from UA President Robbins.
Yes, historically, Indigenous belonging was based on "who claimed you." But tribal gaming politicians have subverted that kinship system. It's no longer that simple.
I don't know if Sacheen is or isn't. That's why I've never said anything about her. What I know is this Indigeneity story could have been reported with more care & precision,
@therebeccasun
. Publishing such demonstrable falsehood is damaging to Indigenous people & Tribal nations.
We are witnessing a sharp rise in ardent Tribal nationalism across Indian country’s upper echelons. If you are not an “enrolled member of a federally recognized tribe,” the national powers that be don’t think you belong and hope to eradicate and assimilate you. Believe it.
Auntie Ollie suffers from dementia. She cannot see well, having had cataract surgeries in both eyes. Nor can she hear well. She cannot walk without assistance. There should be no scenario in which she could be evicted from her home of 24 years--a home she should own outright.
Gabriel Galanda graduated in 2000 from the Indigenous People’s Law and Policy Program at
@uarizonalaw
. A member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of California, Gabe is now one of the country’s leading Indigenous rights attorneys.
He is the College of Law's Alumnus of the Year.
Here's Auntie Ollie at her administrative eviction "hearing" at Nooksack last month. She was denied her right to counsel. Suffering from dementia, she didn't and doesn't know what's happening to her. But what she does know: Where she belongs.
#StopDisenrollment
. Halt enrollment moratoria. End blood quantum. Honor birthrights. Legislate kinship rules. Stem per capita payments. End tribal neocolonialism. Then the Indigeneity lines won't be so blurry.
#Pretendianism
.
I’ve recently heard from two non-Indigenous mainstream news reporters—who did bang up stories on existential Indigenous struggles—how clicks & reads of their stories spiked. That’s surely due to Indigenous readership. Newsrooms should pay attention.
@najournalists
Despite being enjoined by the Washington State Supreme Court, Nooksack will proceed with an eviction "trial" against 86 year-old Auntie Ollie on Wed. She'll get 30 minutes by Zoom to plead why her rent-to-own home of 24 years should not be taken. Nooksack remains above the law.
Better yet: Raquel Montoya-Lewis becomes the first Native American *citizen* to serve as a *State* Supreme Court Justice *in the history of our country.*
On today's
@knkxfm
newscast: Changes at the WA Supreme Court. Debra Stephens is sworn in as chief justice and Raquel Montoya-Lewis becomes the first Native American to serve as a Washington Supreme Court Justice. Story by Olympia reporter
@AustinJenkinsN3
I am an only child but grew up with two cousins who were like brothers. We were each raised by single mothers who suffered deeply from addiction and mental illness. To say we each struggled would be a woeful understatement. Today we are all clean and sober husbands and fathers.🙏🏽
There is almost certainly no legal way to protect these Nooksack Elders from eviction from their tax credit homes. They are owed deeds, not eviction writs. I remain disbarred. They remain without any right to other counsel. The federal Trustee or state fiduciary must act. Now.
Eight relatives from the Little River Band of Pomo Indians of the Redwood Valley Rancheria have been re-enrolled after being disenrolled several years ago. There is hope.
#StopDisenrollment
Repugnant. DNA lab advertises its "services" in support of disenrollment. As
@KimTallBear
's leading research makes plain, DNA results are not genuine "evidence" of anything when it comes to Indigenous belonging.
#StopDisenrollment
Your occasional reminder that there is not an organization in the country that serves to defend against Indigenous human rights abuse in Indian country. ⚖️🚫
How many tribal influencers will tritely decry “merciless Indian savages” this weekend without ever having decried merciless Indigenous human rights abuse by tribal politicians?