I had lib friends that would do this native American thing. Their parents would lie or maybe have been lied to and say they had a lot of Cherokee in them. So these libs will make it part of their identity until the 23 and me results come in and they realize they’re not that native after all. They take these identities on and off like they were fucking hats. Like, if a full blooded native American came up to me, said he was my dad, gave me all the documents to prove it, and it turned out I was over half Cherokee it wouldn’t make me native American, that’s just not my lived experience. If you think DNA factors into it you may as well break out the calipers and starting measuring your skull to see of you’re allowed to celebrate Kwanzaa.
Unfortunately many native tribes have been pulled into the blood quantum bs too, it’s not just settlers. One of my closest friends grew up on the res, speaks her tribes language , and looks native and even holds tribal membership, but because her dad was white, she was heavily ostracized.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, my half brothers are 1/4 native alaskan, from their dad, but they get treated like family by all the full blooded members of their tribe, even though they’re white as hell, and live in a white city multiple states away. They get free healthcare for life, and when their grandparents and dad die, they’ll get payments for the rest of their lives from the state of Alaska.
I kinda went off topic here, but I hate discussions of blood quantum entirely. Like you say, indigenieity (indigenous-ness? Idk…) is cultural more than anything. Some cultures have integrated the racism of the settlers into their culture though, and it only hurts themselves.
I had lib friends that would do this native American thing. Their parents would lie or maybe have been lied to and say they had a lot of Cherokee in them. So these libs will make it part of their identity until the 23 and me results come in and they realize they’re not that native after all. They take these identities on and off like they were fucking hats. Like, if a full blooded native American came up to me, said he was my dad, gave me all the documents to prove it, and it turned out I was over half Cherokee it wouldn’t make me native American, that’s just not my lived experience. If you think DNA factors into it you may as well break out the calipers and starting measuring your skull to see of you’re allowed to celebrate Kwanzaa.
Unfortunately many native tribes have been pulled into the blood quantum bs too, it’s not just settlers. One of my closest friends grew up on the res, speaks her tribes language , and looks native and even holds tribal membership, but because her dad was white, she was heavily ostracized.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, my half brothers are 1/4 native alaskan, from their dad, but they get treated like family by all the full blooded members of their tribe, even though they’re white as hell, and live in a white city multiple states away. They get free healthcare for life, and when their grandparents and dad die, they’ll get payments for the rest of their lives from the state of Alaska.
I kinda went off topic here, but I hate discussions of blood quantum entirely. Like you say, indigenieity (indigenous-ness? Idk…) is cultural more than anything. Some cultures have integrated the racism of the settlers into their culture though, and it only hurts themselves.