Blood Quantum a song by The Indigo Girls Lyrics

You're standing in the blood
quantum line 
With a pitcher in your hand 
Poured from your heart into your veins 
You said I am 
I am
I am
Now measure me
Measure me
Tell me where I stand
Allocate my very soul
Like you have my land
-Excerpt from "Blood Quantum," a song by The Indigo Girls
from Blood Quantum A complicated system that determines tribal membership threatens the future of American Indians by Andrea Appleton in High Country News
January 19, 2009 Vol.41 No.1 Pg.17

Why We Can't Wait by Martin Luther King pg.27

A methodology and philosophy of revolution is neither born nor accepted overnight. From the moment it emerges, it is subjected to rigorous tests, opposition, scorn and prejudice. The old guard in any society resents new methods, for old guards wear the decorations and medals won by waging battle in the accepted manner. Often opposition comes not only from the conservatives, who cling to tradition, but also from the extremist militants, who favor neither the old nor the new.
-Why We Can't Wait by Martin Luther King Pg.27

The Medieval and Renaissance Origins of the Status of the American Indian in Western Legal Thought pg.7-8

Tribal peoples have historically existed in a precarious, often violent relationship with the governments and legal systems that decide the issues affecting their cultural survival.  By revealing the ideological bases of our earliest conceptions of the tribe, and how those conceptions helped rationalize the iniquitous treatment the Indian received at the hands of his European conquerors, it may be possible to demonstrate the urgent need to rethink the doctrinal foundations of our conceptions respecting the status of the tribe in modern society.  -The Medieval and Renaissance Origins of the Status of the American Indian in Western Legal Thought by Robert A. Williams, Jr.    Pg.7-8

Whiteness as Property by Cheryl I. Harris Harvard Law Review pg.1714

I adopt here the definition of white supremacy utilized by Francis Lee Ansley: By "white supremacy" I do not mean to allude only to the self-conscious racism of white supremacist hate groups. I refer instead to a political, economic, and cultural system in whites overwhelmingly control power and material resources, conscious and unconscious ideas of white superiority and entitlement are widespread, and relations of white dominance and non-white subordination are daily reenacted across a broad array of institutions and social settings.
-Whiteness as Property by Cheryl I. Harris Harvard Law Review Pg.1714

Whiteness as property by Cheryl I. Harris Harvard Law Review pg.1716

In reviewing ROBERT WILLIAMS, THE AMERICAN INDIAN IN WESTERN LEGAL THOUGHT: THE DISCOURSE OF CONQUEST (1990), an eloquent and meticulous work on the American Indian in Western legal doctrine, Joseph William Singer draws out the organic connections between property rights and race as the pattern of conquest of native lands exemplified:
[P]roperty and sovereignty in the United States have a racial basis. The land was taken by force by white people from peoples of color thought by the conquerors to be racially inferior. The close relation of native peoples to the land was held to be no relation at all. To the conquerors, the land was "vacant." Yet it required trickery and force to wrest it from its occupants. This means that the title of every single parcel of property in the United States can be traced to a system of racial violence.
-Whiteness as property by Cheryl I. Harris Harvard Law Review Pg.1716

Notes of A Native Son by James Baldwin pg.xi-xii

The accumulated rock of ages deciphered itself as a part of my inheritance-a part, mind you, not the totality-but, in order to claim my birthright, of which myinheritance was but a shadow, it was necessary to challenge and claim the rock. Otherwise, the rock claimed me. Or, to put it another way, my inheritance was particular, specifically limited and limiting: my birthright was vast, connecting me to all that lives, and to everyone, forever. But one cannot claim the birthright without accepting the inheritance.
-Notes of A Native Son by James Baldwin Pg.xi-xii

Human Genetics Concepts and Applications by Ricki Lewis pg.318

Identifying the origins of Native Americans is challenging because data from linguistics, archaeology, and genetics do not always agree. A study from 1987, for example, established three waves of migration across the Bering Strait land bridge that formed between Siberia and Alaska during low glacial periods. The basis was a comparison of many Native American languages, and subsequent grouping of the people into the “Eskimo-Aleut,” who arrived 7,000 to 5,000 years ago, the “Na-Dene,” who came 15,000 to 12,000 years ago, and the “Amerinds,” who arrived about 33,000 years ago. But only a few sounds had been used to distinguish the languages, lumping several as Amerind that may actually have been distinct in their origins. The premise for grouping the people was faulty. Since then, several genetic studies have countered the “three migration hypothesis,” but even the genetic studies do not completely agree. One problem is that studying different parts of the human genome can yield different results, because DNA sequences change at different rates.
-Human Genetics Concepts and Applications by Ricki Lewis Pg.318

Why We Can't Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr. pg.55

The bell of man's inhumanity to man does not toll for any one man. It tolls for you, for me, for all of us. 
-Why We Can't Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr. Pg.55

Blackfeet Constitution Ordinance No.14

Ordinance No.14 
Procedures Governing Enrollment 
Section 2 Eligibility For Enrollment 
A. Original Members. All persons of Indian blood whose names appear on the official census roll of the Blackfeet Tribe as of January 1, 1935. 
B. Descendants. All children born prior to August 30, 1962 to any blood member of the Blackfeet Tribe maintaining a legal residence* within the territory of the reservation at the time of such birth. (*”Legal Residence” defined in Resolution 72-56, enacted October 22, 1956, as follows: That for the purposes of enrollment under Section 1(b) of the Constitution and By-laws of the Blackfeet Tribe, all blood members of the Blackfeet Tribe shall be considered legal residents of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation if they are away from the reservation for reasons of health, education, employment, or induction into military services of this country).
(See Resolution No.72-56, Dated October 22, 1956, Attached Hereto As Attachment #1).
C. Descendants. All children having one-fourth (1/4) degree of Blackfeet Indian blood or more born after August 30, 1962 to any blood member of the Blackfeet Tribe.
Pg.1-2

A Pocket Guide To Writing In History by Mary Lynn Rampola pg.1

"The historians goal is not to collect "facts" about the past, but rather to acquire insight into the ideas and realities that shaped the lives of men and women of earlier societies. Some of the beliefs and institutions of the past may seem alien to us; others are all too familiar. But in either case, when we study the people of the past, what we are really learning about is the rich diversity of human experience. The study of history is the study of the beliefs and desires, practices and institutions, of human beings."
-A Pocket Guide To Writing In History by Mary Lynn Rampola
pg.1

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau

The Sacred Buffalo Vision by Robert J. Juneau and Robert C. Juneau
A book about Montana Blackfeet History  
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482025965/ref=tsm_1_fb_lk

The Genetic Composition of Reservation Populations: The Blackfeet Reservation, Montana, U.S.A. pg.20

"In 1931 when Matson visited them, and with Dr. Schrader collected blood specimens for their study (Matson and Schrader, 1933), the Agency records at Browning, Montana showed many Blackfeet to be mixed with other tribes.  These included Canadian Cree, American Cree, Chippewa, Cherokee, Snake, Shoshone, Sioux, Gros Ventre, Flathead, Kootenai and Alaskan.  Phenotypic indicators of admixture with Blacks were also observed among a few persons.  During the twentieth century, admixture with non-Indians has been a prominent stimulus to social, demographic consequences of this process in detail.  In summary, by 1950 approximately 85% of the tribal population of 6.000 persons were of mixed (i.e. non-Indian and Indian) ancestry.  These observations are supported by those of McFee (1968) who has described the composition of the Blackfeet population as follows:
The Blackfeet tribal enrollment as of February 1, 1960 was 8,456 members of which 4,850 lived on the reservation.  Roughly 13 percent of this resident population was fullblood, while perhaps another 10 percent was less than one-quarter Indian."
-The Genetic Composition of Reservation Populations:  The Blackfeet Reservation, Montana, U.S.A.
by Dwight A. Rokala, Herbert F. Polesky and G. Albin Matson  
Human Biology, Vol.49, No.1 (February 1977),  
pg.20

What would you like the Last Act of the Blackfeet to be?

Another thing to just think about is as a people what would we like our last act to be? If we stick with Blood Quantum all Anthropological experts say we will not be around officially by the year 2080. I am against the Blackfeet ever going extinct but I am just one unofficial vote since I can't vote in Tribal Elections. Some others are I know are totally okay with that. Keep the Blood Quantum even if it means the whole Blackfeet Tribe goes extinct. They have a Tribal vote and are voting that way. So one choice I see that some people have made as to what could be the last act of the Blackfeet is we went extinct because I don't want our tribe to look like another race or ethic group. In that scenario we went out as a group of Racists. The very thing we always said we were against. Racism. Some have said I don't want to change the Enrollment Policy because I might lose some Tribal benefits. Okay in that case we went extinct because we were greedy. I don't want to change the Enrollment Policy because I am afraid of the infinite number of possibilities that could happen if we did even though we all know the worst possibility, extinction, is going to happen if we stick with Blood Quantum I am too scared to take a chance. Fine, then we go extinct because we were paralyzed with fear. So if we had to, as a tribe, pick a last act for our people is taking a chance on something other than Blood Quantum not an Honorable choice? If not the most Honorable choice. Because being Racist, Greedy, or paralyzed with fear don't sound like Honorable choices to me. As the line in T.S. Elliot's The Hollow Men goes,"not with a bang but a whimper."  Just my opinion.

Frankenstein never took responsibility

Just to share a thought one of the things I liked or noticed in the Frankenstein story by Mary Shelley is one of the tragedies was Frankenstein never took responsibility for the life of the Creature that he brought into this world. The Creature knows that by the end of the story and the Creature resents that. The Creature knows that it was brought into this world unprotected, misunderstood, and through no fault of it's own hated by the entire world. This is why I get really annoyed when I hear Blackfeet against Enrollment say things like because of what a person looks like they are disqualified from being a Full Member of the tribe. Or that their family should have married only Blackfeet. These are really arrogant statements. It is not the fault of a individual what family they were born into so stop punishing them for it. Being a Descendant of the Blackfeet Tribe and allegiance to that tribe is in my opinion what makes a person Blackfeet. Anything else is just Racial Bigotry and Narcissism. I think our tribe needs to think more about what it is like to be a Blackfeet Descendant? What does that feel like? And then as Blackfeet knowing firsthand what it feels like to be discriminated against why are we inflicting that kind of pain and humiliation on the Blackfeet Descendants when we already know they are our own people? Blackfeet Descendants are everywhere on the Blackfeet Reservation every day. They are seen everyday without anyone even knowing it because they don't wear anything that identifies them. They are everyone's friends, neighbors, and relatives. Just voicing an opinion. Take it or leave it.

Blackfeet Band of Descendants can petition for Federal Recognition

Blackfeet Descendants are a Tribal Land owning group.  They are federally recognized American Indians descended from original Blackfeet Allottees. They have the right to seek Federal recognition as a band of Blackfeet Descendants of original allottees if they should choose to do so.  Tribal recognition and Federal recognition are two different things.  If you cannot get federal recognition through a tribe you can get it by getting recognized as a band of Blackfeet Descendants separate from  the Blackfeet Tribe.  Their landbase is their Allotments.  

Primer on Federal Recognition And Current Issues Affecting Process
Prepared For NCAI Winter Session
February, 2001
Updated November 21, 2001
Jennifer P. Hughes, Esq.
page 3

"2.Who Cannot Petition?"  
"Tribes, organized bands, pueblos, Alaska native villages, and communities which are already recognized as such and receive services from the BIA cannot be reviewed under the FAP process.  Neither can associations, organizations, corporations or groups of any character that have been formed in recent times (the fact that a group that meets the mandatory criteria under the regulations has recently incorporated or formalized its existing autonomous political process does not affect the Assistant Secretary's final decision on its petition).  Splinter groups, political factions or groups of any nature that separate from the main body of a currently recognized tribe cannot be acknowledged under the FAP process unless the group can establish that it has functioned throughout history until the present as an autonomous tribal entity.  Groups that subject to federal legislation terminating or forbidding federal recognition as a tribe cannot be acknowledged under the FAP process.  Lastly, groups that have previously petitioned and were denied cannot petition."

The State of Native America Edited by M. Annette Jaimes pg.129-130

"What has occurred is that the limitation of federal resources allocated to meeting U.S. obligations to American Indians has become so severe that Indians themselves have increasingly begun to enforce the race codes excluding the genetically marginalized from both identification as Indian citizens and consequent entitlements. In theory, such a posture leaves greater per capita shares for all remaining "bona fide" Indians. But, as American Indian Movement activist Russell Means has Pointed out:
The situation is absurd. Our treaties say nothing about your having to be such-and-such a degree of blood in order to be covered...when the federal government made its guarantees to our nations in exchange for our land, it committed to provide certain services to us as we defined ourselves. As nations, and as a people. This seems to have been forgotten. Now we have Indian people who spend most of their time trying to prevent other Indian people from being recognized as such, just so that a few more crumbs-crumbs from the federal table-may be available to them, personally. I dont have to tell you that this isn't the Indian way of doing things. The Indian way would be to get together and demand what is coming to each and every one of us, instead of trying to cancel each other out. We are acting like colonized peoples, like subject peoples..."
-The State of Native America edited by M. Annette Jaimes
Chapter IV Federal Indian Identification Policy A Usurpation of Indigenous Sovereignty in North America by M. Annette Jaimes
pg.129-130

The State of Native America Edited by M. Annette Jaimes pg.123-124

"Contrary to virtually universal practice, the United States has opted to preempt unilaterally the rights of many North American indigenous nations to engage in this most fundamental level of internal decision making. Instead, in pursuit of the interests of their own state rather than those of the nations that are thereby affected, federal policymakers have increasingly imposed "Indian identification standards" of their own design. Typically centering upon a notion of "blood quantum"-not especially different in its conception from the eugenics code once adopted by nazi Germany in its effort to achieve "racial purity," or currently utilized by South Africa to segregate Blacks and "coloreds" this aspect of U.S. policy has increasingly wrought havoc with the American Indian sense of nationhood (and often the individual sense of self) over the past century."
-The State of Native America Edited by M. Annette Jaimes
Chapter IV Federal Indian Identification Policy
A Usurpation of Indigenous Sovereignty in North America
by M. Annette Jaimes
pg.123-124

Robert C. Juneau Glacier Reporter Letter to the Editor

To the Editor: 
I was reading Chapter IV Federal Indian Identification Policy A Usurpation of Indigenous Sovereignty in North America by M. Annette Jaimes in a book called The State of Native America edited by M. Annette Jaimes and on page 123-124 it says,"Contrary to virtually universal practice, the United States has opted to preempt unilaterally the rights of many North American indigenous nations to engage in this most fundamental level of internal decision making. Instead, in pursuit of the interests of their own state rather than those of the nations that are thereby affected, federal policymakers have increasingly imposed "Indian identification standards" of their own design. Typically centering upon a notion of "blood quantum"-not especially different in its conception from the eugenics code once adopted by nazi Germany in its effort to achieve "racial purity," or currently utilized by South Africa to segregate Blacks and "coloreds" this aspect of U.S. Policy has increasingly wrought havoc with the American Indian sense of nationhood (and often the individual sense of self) over the past century. The more than 370 formally ratified treaties entered into by the United States with various Indian nations represent the basic real estate documents by which the federal government now claims legal title to most of its land base. In exchange for the lands ceded by Indians, the United States committed itself to the permanent provision of a range of services to Indian populations (i.e., the citizens of the Indian nations with which the treaty agreements were reached), which would assist them in adjusting their economies and ways of life to their newly constricted territories." On page 4 of my father Bob Juneau's book The Sacred Buffalo Vision published on Amazon.com it says,"The Blackfeet Indians have one of the strongest treaties in the United States, having signed what the Congress of the United States defines as a "negotiated treaty" a "bought and paid for reservation"meaning that we paid for our reservation with land cessions to the United States. The Blackfeet Indians are a "distinct political class" set apart from and above the State of Montana. The Blackfeet Indians have a direct federal-tribal delivery system to receive treaty obligation funds appropriated by the Congress. Indian monies generated from individual Indian trust property are administered by the executive branch, through the Interior Department and Bureau of Indian Affairs." This means that for every Blackfeet Descendant that gets Enrolled the Blackfeet Tribe will get more Federal funding for each new member. They will also retain the tribal land base when the Descendants inherit the land from their parents. The way to accomplish this is for the Enrolled Blackfeet Members to sign the B.E.A.R Petition and allow the issue to come to a Secretarial Vote. You can find more information on the B.E.A.R Petition or obtain a copy of it on Facebook on the Blackfeet Descendants Group or B.E.A.R (Blackfeet Enrollment Amendment Reform) or by contacting Deena McDonald at (406)450-3645.

War Against The Weak Eugenics And America's Campaign To Create A Master Race by Edwin Black pg.xvi-xvii

"Eventually, America's eugenic movement spread to Germany as well, where it caught the fascination of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi movement. Under Hitler, eugenics careened beyond any American eugenicist's dream. National Socialism transduced America's quest for a "superior Nordic race" into Hitler's drive for an "Aryan master race." The Nazis were fond of saying "National Socialism is nothing but applied biology," and in 1934 the Richmond Times-Dispatch quoted a prominent American eugenicist as saying,"The Germans are beating us at our own game." Nazi eugenics quickly outpaced American eugenics in both velocity and ferocity. In the 1930s, Germany assumed the lead in the international movement. Hitler's eugenics was backed by brutal decrees, custom designed IBM data processing machines, eugenical courts, mass sterilization mills, concentration camps, and virulent biological anti-Semitism- all of which enjoyed the open approval of leading American eugenicists and their institutions. The cheering quieted, but only reluctantly, when the United States entered the war in December of 1941. Then, out of sight of the world Germany's eugenic warriors operated extermination centers. Eventually, Germany's eugenic madness led to the Holocaust, the destruction of the Gypsies, the rape of Poland and the decimation of all of Europe. But none of America's far reaching scientific racism would have risen above ignorant rants without the backing of corporate philanthropic largess."
-War Against The Weak Eugenics And America's Campaign To Create A Master Race by Edwin Black
pg.xvi-xvii