Aren’t I too “white?”

Sometimes you’ll hear a conflict between “more-Indian” folks and “fair-skinned” folks.  Here is the word from our tribal chairman John “Rocky” Barrett (Keweoge, He Leads Them Home), as reported in the May 2019 issue of our newsletter the Hownikan:

 “Please remember that tribal membership is determined by descendancy, not the fiction perpetrated by the federal government as ‘blood degree.’ You are a Citizen Potawatomi Indian by federal law and Tribal law.  If you are a descendant of the 45 or so families that formed a new tribe in 1861 in Kansas, you are a Citizen Potawatomi. It is not about your looks. It is about your legal dual citizenship and your heritage under a Tribal government recognized by Congress in over 40 different treaties. The United States only makes treaties with other ‘sovereign nations,’ hence our constitutional status and ability to govern our own people and lands. Your heritage belongs to you. Your Tribe was created to help each other as blood kin. We have our own language, art, music, dress and traditions like no other people in the world. Take pride in this and help pass it on in your family.

 “All of you own every ceremony the Potawatomi have used for hundreds of generations. Every Potawatomi is entitled to know and celebrate these old ways. Please claim this birthright and learn about them so you can pass them on. There is no such legal thing in our Tribal Nation as ‘blood degree,’ except to describe those who presently own their old investments of the Indian Claims Commission Acts Money. Every one of you is 100 percent Citizen Potawatomi under Tribal and federal law. Our tradition for over 1,000 years has always been that our Tribe is made up of those ‘who share the blood of our forefathers.’ The blood you share is not diminished in each new generation. Every enrolled Citizen Potawatomi shares a common history, blood, language, art, music, territory and government. Each of you has an equal share. As your children are born, they too will have an equal share.”

 I first went to a CPN function a year ago, and I was very nervous that I would be (as a blonde/blue person) obviously out of place. Nope. Only one person had the stereotypical “Indian look.” So go, meet, learn.
Keywords: blood degree, quotient, part-native, fair-skinned, percentage

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