Blood Quantum. Good or Bad?

[WhoMe]

A lady came up to me yesterday and said she paid $125. for DNA testing. She said she was told she has some Ojibway DNA....

I laughed and said, "Kewl."

She then asked if this DNA finding could be taken to a Ojibway tribe as proof for membership?

I told her she could try. But tribes determine their own membership and DNA testing will not automatically get anyone into any tribe. "It's a scam!"

She was extremely dissapointed that she paid all that money and got her hopes up.....

[timmy tiger]

A lady came up to me yesterday and said she paid $125. for DNA testing. She said she was told she has some Ojibway DNA....

I laughed and said, "Kewl."

She then asked if this DNA finding could be taken to a Ojibway tribe as proof for membership?

I told her she could try. But tribes determine their own membership and DNA testing will not automatically get anyone into any tribe. "It's a scam!"

She was extremely dissapointed that she paid all that money and got her hopes up.....

$125 and they told her what tribe? THat's a bigger scam then even she knows.LOL

An Autosomal DNA test starts at $250 and can only give you the fact that you have some Native American DNA and it's not toally accurate. Two siblings can have two different results depending on the luck of the draw at the time of conception and the labs state that themselves in their own paperwork.LOL

So either she was scamed or not being totally honest.

[Mato Mahe]

So, does anybody think tribes may start accepting DNA tests are proof of ancestry?

If the blood quantum system is driving us into extinction is DNA testing an alternative? .....or do some still think testing about tribal knowledge (culture, dance and language) is a way to determine membership?

.

[anishtradish]

Well science tells us we all came out of Africa at one point in time. So does that mean we should all claim to be African as well? I mean after all we must have some African blood then if all these scientists are correct.

Like Ada said.... 'If only a very small fraction of your blood is NDN, then when do you cease to be one?'


In my opinion, anyone less than a quarter shouldn't even claim to be Native. I know a lot of people won't agree, but tough. Maybe even half at that. At least when your half, you can claim to either be or not be. I know it sucks when you intermarry between other tribes, and those tribes choose not to recognize the other tribe's blood quantums when it comes to the children. But for people who intermarry to non-natives, your making that choice to make children who will be less native.

I think some tribes eventually will be doomed to extinction, and that's just how it is. I don't see no point in tribes that keep lessening the blood quantum requirements because eventually they will just be descendants.

Do we really want a bunch of federally recognized tribes with blond hair and blue eyes?

[gtbdave]

What got deleted where? Powwows.com did crash the other night, so if that's when you posted, that's what happened.

All moderators here at powwows.com are volunteers, and we sure appreciate every one of them and all the time they put into making the site what it is.

As forum admin, I do get paid, and it works out to about $1/hour for all the time I'm on here.

Back to topic: tribes are the ones that determine membership, so if you don't like it - if you're an enrolled member you can get involved with changing it. Find out how your tribal govt works, start a petition, get it in front of the general council, business coucil, tribal council, whatever applies in your case.

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In this thread, you see a reply making reference to one of my posts on this thread, a funny comment I made, but you don't find the post I made the comment in. It's gone.

topic: Our Tribe has a committee set up for Constitutional changes regarding requirements for membership. I guess it's an on-going thing, been around for years. I'm not aware of any changes that made in how membership is determined, still goes back to papers, documents, and the rolls. I don't think there is any big push to change things, in that we have per capita, as well as lands available, as well as other Tribal benefits. Other than per capita, the benefits are restricted to legit Tribal members living on the reservation. Off-reservation members don't even get to vote. I have never voted, since I haven't lived on the reservation since I was a child. I guess it's just as well, since I really don't know any of the candidates for Office anymore, I've been away for so long. I really couldn't see going back to the reservation, in that the family now has families of their own, and jobs, careers, to think about. We are settled into where we are at, with lots of ties here, economic and otherwise. Besides, it snows there. There would have to be some significant benefits for me to move there. I would lose too much by uprooting.

[wyo_rose]

________________
In this thread, you see a reply making reference to one of my posts on this thread, a funny comment I made, but you don't find the post I made the comment in. It's gone.

Well, I'd see it if it was deleted, so maybe something else happened....it's not unheard of. We would never edit something out for being FUNNY. Heck, we WANT more of those kind of posts.

Thanks for posting in that other thread somewhere that you haven't had much trouble in THIS website. I wanted to reply in that thread, but I can't remember where I saw it.

Anyway, keep posting!!

[wyo_rose]

Do we really want a bunch of federally recognized tribes with blond hair and blue eyes?

Good post, and I know what you mean, but please don't be too quick to judge by appearances. My two youngest daughters are more than 1/2, enrolled members of a federally recognized tribe, and blond and blue-eyed.

[Grits & Beans]

well i like how my room mate(his father is black, mother ndn/black) put it when we first met years ago- i have ndn in my family.

don't understand why people whose grandparents and great-grandparents etc were ndn, can't just leave it at that?






i'm half, i'm not blonde and blue eyed but have almost as many blonde and blue eyed relatives as i have ndn relatives...almost

[Shawrakee]

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[Joe's Dad]

Not the first bit in the world.

Don't go in circles. Just speak your piece like you're talking amongst a bunch of NDNs.

[Joe's Dad]

This can be a tough subject of explanations.

Not really. I know the person u quoted personally. She made a statement her kids looked like grains of salt in a bunch of Cayenne pepper. Big deal. She's NDN and so are her children. Your color or features don't make you NDN. Being NDN makes you NDN.

You removed your post that talked in circles. It couldn't be that tough to explain.

Hey wyo...I was being just rugged on your brats, eh?

[Shawrakee]

[

[wyo_rose]

This can be a tough subject of explanations.

Nope, don't have to explain anything. Everybody around here knows who they are and who they're related to.

They've both gone to other communities and BIA boarding schools and made lots of friends from all over.

The only person I had to explain anything to was this ignorant lady who wanted to know why I dyed my little girls' hair blonde. I explained to her that I didn't dye their hair.

Yep, JD. Those 2 are the brattiest!

[Shawrakee]

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[Redboots]

I am always in Awe, when it comes to this subject. Why do we have to go by someone else standards of who we are? My people are Indian before Native American was the proper name. Why do we need a blood rule or names on a role, to tell us who we are? Whether my name is on a roll or not, I am Indian. My Grand parents felt the same way. So they did not sign up with the tribe, even when the Chief is my GrandMother first cousin. No other race of people have to go through this. We are going with Goverment Guide lines of who we are. That took our Id. the first place. I just do not understand it.........