Red Lake Nation recently changed who can be a citizen. It used to require one-quarter Red Lake blood quantum. As Laurie Stern reports, the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe may make changes too.
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Headlines:
Marie: This week on Minnesota Native News, we talk about enrollment, and what’s in a name.
This is Minnesota Native News. I’m Marie Rock.
[Story #1 Enrollment]
Marie: Red Lake Nation recently changed who can be a citizen. It used to require one-quarter Red Lake blood quantum. But starting in January, anyone who was an enrolled member in 1958 will be considered full-blood. As Laurie Stern reports, the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe is thinking about making changes too.
Laurie: Red Lake Nation changed the enrollment rules to reverse what Secretary Sam Strong called intentional mathematical genocide. David Treuer from Leech Lake agrees.
DT: It was the general thinking of the United States government that if they institute blood quantum laws we would breed ourselves out of existence within a generation or two.
Treuer is a historian and author. His new book is called The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee. Treuer says blood quantum is a divisive and problematic way to decide who gets to be a tribal member. Blood matters, he says, but so do language, ceremony and culture.
DT: We understand ourselves in many ways beyond blood and our discussions are beginning to evolve to meet the ways in which I think we’ve always thought of ourselves. It’s exciting. It’s time in this age of gathered and growing strength we think about how we want to organize ourselves.
The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe – which includes Leech Lake and five other bands – is considering the enrollment question right now. A constitutional committee meets monthly to gather input on whether and how criteria should change.
GF: I’m Gary Frazer, Executive Director of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe here in Cass Lake. We set our own enrollment. We should decide who our members are and who aren’t our members. Bottom line that’s probably what we’re going to get out of it, similar to what Red Lake did.
Frazer says the MCT has lost about a thousand members over the past twenty years, and membership will continue to decline as people marry outside the tribe because their children and their children’s children will have less blood quantum. Frazer says there’s no consensus yet on how to reverse the trend but the enrollment committee has heard many ideas for how to make membership more inclusive. He says members of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe will be getting a survey in the mail, and there will soon be a Facebook page for members to weigh in. Red Lake Nation is holding a special enrollment meeting the end of January. Enrollment reform is just one part of a movement across Indian Country to reform tribal constitutions. For MNN I’m Laurie Stern
[Story #2 Historic Ft. Snelling Name Change]
Marie: The state historical site at Ft. Snelling just closed for the season, but the discussion about what to call it is ramping up. The name of the 1820’s fort will remain Fort Snelling. But, what the 23-acre site around the Fort should be called… that’s up for discussion. The public has until mid-November to weigh in with ideas and suggestions. This is Kevin Maijala (MY-a-la), the deputy director of learning at the Minnesota Historical Society.
(KM History is about everybody’s story. We want to be sure the Native perspective is in there, we’ve been adding items about treaties and trade, about tragedies at Ft. Snelling, the concentration camp where Dakota were interred after the war of 1862. It’s a painful place but it’s also a place of origin for Dakota people. Maybe it’s time to change the name to reflect that broader story that we’re trying to tell.
Marie: Maijala says more than 5,000 people have so far contributed their thoughts through emails, public meetings and the survey. The History Center will summarize those views and likely recommend a name change to the legislature in 2020. You can find the survey through November 15 at m-n-h-s dot org slash naming.