Robert C. Juneau Glacier Reporter Letter to the Editor 9-25-13

Glacier Reporter Letter to the Editor   

9-25-13

Robert C. Juneau 

To the Editor: 

I was recently reading a article from the Stanford Law Review written by
Eric Beckenhauer entitled Redefining Race:  Can Genetic Testing Provide
Biological Proof of Indian Ethnicity?  In the article it says on Page 170,
"How blood quantum requirements are harmful to Indians for three principle
reasons.  First, due to intermarriage and admixture among cultures, subsequent
Indian generations face great difficulty in meeting even loose blood quantum
membership criteria, since the average blood quantum of their populations is
inevitably diluted.  Second, as individual Indians fall below minimum blood

percentage cutoffs, they lose eligibility for essential federal services, such as

healthcare.  Third, to the extent that the term "Indian" should be socially-not

biologically-defined, blood quantum requirements are over exclusive and,

some argue, genocidal." For these reasons and more the Blackfeet need to

get rid of Blood quantum as a requirement for enrollment.  Saving our landbase

is another as the Blackfeet Descendants will inevitably be heirs to Tribal land

from their parents.  When that happens that land will eventually pass from Trust

to Fee status.  Once the land is in Fee status it can be taxed by the State of

Montana and taken away.  If it is legally taken away the Blackfeet can never

get it back.  Membership is another consideration on page 175 of Beckenhauer's

article it says, "Blood quantum requirements raise the additional problem that,

given the inevitable march of time, they will be rendered useless since they

threaten to vastly diminish tribal rolls by the end of this century." The way to

avoid this is for the Blackfeet Enrolled Members to sign the Blackfeet Enrollment

Amendment Reform (BEAR) Petition and let the issue come to a vote.