Robert C. Juneau Glacier Reporter Letter to the Editor 7-6-12

Glacier Reporter Letter to the Editor
7-6-12
Robert C. Juneau  

To the Editor: 
According to Paul Spruhan in his South Dakota Law Review article entitled A Legal History of 
Blood Quantum in Federal Indian Law To 1935 one of the earliest examples of Blood Quantum 
Law was in 1705 in Virginia which defined mulatto as being either the child of a Indian or the 
great-grandchild of a African-American. He says on Page 8 that,"The important thing is that 
blood quantum existed before the extension of federal authority over tribal territory, and was 
not created specifically for it. As the United States expanded and interacted with more tribal 
nations, officials brought a pre-existing language of blood that they would apply in different 
ways to define Indians." Former Chair of the Anthropology Department at the University of 
Montana Gregory R. Campbell says in a book he edited called Many Americas on Page 14, 
"The degree of "Indian blood," originally, was incorporated as part of the 1887 General Allotment 
Act to determine land inheritance among allotees. Blood quantum linked forced assimilation with 
Scientific racism through the necessity of defining legally who was Native American. The Indian 
Office used the concept to track the "civilized progress" of Indian people: cultural characteristics 
were linked and determined through "blood." Spruhan also goes on to say in his article on Page 46, 
"However, members of Congress, especially Senator Wheeler of Montana, objected to the one- 
quarter standard: I do not think the government of the United States should go out there and take a lot of Indians in that are quarter bloods and take them in under this act. If they are Indians in the half blood then the government should perhaps take them in, but not unless they are. If you pass it to where they are quarter blood Indians you are going to have all kinds of people coming in and claiming they are quarter blood Indians and want to be put on the government rolls, and in my judgement it should not be done. What we are trying to do is get rid of the Indian problem rather than to add to it." 
The Blood Quantum is rooted in English Law and Scientific racism. Not Native Tradition. 
The Blackfeet do not have to use it as a Enrollment Criteria. They have the power to use 
whatever Enrollment Criteria they want. And, in fact, are not sovereign unless they can 
determine for themselves their own Enrollment Criteria.