Tribal Membership - Native American Issues
Unenrolled mixed-blood Native Americans still
identify with their indigenous cultural heritage.
Hundreds of thousands of Native Americans who are unable to enroll in a federally recognized tribe still identify with their indigenous heritage, according to a new book.
"Their voices need to be heard," said David Arv Bragi, author of "Invisible Indians: Mixed-Blood Native Americans Who Are Not Enrolled in Federally Recognized Tribes".
A freelance journalist and enrolled member of the Muscogee Nation, Bragi spent over three years interviewing dozens of individuals, from over twenty-five North American tribes, who do not hold formal tribal membership. "Hopefully, they will demonstrate that one does not need to carry official papers in one's pocket in order to be a 'real Indian'."
Like most of the over four million people who listed an American Indian or Alaska Native ancestry during the 1990 US Census, the Mato-Toyela family is not enrolled in any of the over five hundred tribes that are recognized by the federal government as sovereign nations. Yet they continue to practice Native customs passed down since the beginning of history.
"We lead traditional Indian lifestyles to the best of our ability although we do not 'belong' to a tribe," said Jessie Mato-Toyela, who is descended from the Tarascan tribe of Mexico and lives in Oklahoma with her husband and children. "Some of the traditions of our people, I believe, are ingrained in us, it is instinctual. We eat the food of our ancestors because we know it is good for us."
"If you've heard the phrase 'you can take the Indian out of the woods, but not the woods out of the Indian' it would be close," said her husband, Charlie Mato-Toyela, a maker of traditional flutes who is of mixed Ojibwa, Lakota, Kuna, Choctaw and Cherokee descent. "Much of our life happens in the way our ancestors of thousands of years as well as just one hundred years ago lived their lives, just different environments, different obstacles."
In order to prevent non-Indians from fraudulently obtaining Indian lands, culture, casino profits or government benefits, many tribal governments have adopted strict membership requirements. Individuals lacking ancestral birth records, who have a low degree of tribal blood, or whose tribes have no political relationship with the federal government, are often denied official recognition of their ancestry.
Instead, they exist in a kind of legal and ethnic limbo, living as multiracial individuals and families in a country that does not fully acknowledge their multiracial heritage. Many Native Americans without tribal membership resent their second-class status in Indian Country.
"People at powwows sometimes ask for your [enrollment] card and it is a condition of getting into it," said Charlie Mato-Toyela. "It is a predjudism [sic] that was inflicted on some of us by 'numbering us' like we're in some death camp."
"Legally we have lost our right to be acknowledged as existing," said Barbara Warren, a Cherokee who promotes Indian Education programs in California's public schools. "We receive ridicule from our own 'blood' relations, who call us derogatory names such as wannabes, fake Indians, and traitors."
Yet, living outside of the system, unenrolled Native Americans walk their own unique roads to preserve, reclaim and celebrate their heritage. Some lead extraordinary lives as artisans, pow wow dancers, educators, activists or community elders.
"Please don't tell me I'm playing at being an Indian," said Warren, who also composes and performs northern drum songs with the Feather River Singers and maintains the Web site of an unrecognized but culturally active tribe called the Cherokees of California. "I do it because it is who I am."
"I am mixed blood - more 'white' than 'red.'," said Warren. "My European ancestors came to Turtle Island generations ago - most in the early 1600s. Any emotional ties with my English/Scottish/German ancestors have long ago faded. My sense of who I am is directly connected to this land."
Others choose to honor their heritage privately, observing family traditions, reclaiming lost knowledge, or just remembering in solitude those who came before them.
"Since his birth he has been brought up knowing he is an Indian," said Jessie Mato-Toyela of their young son, River. "He has been to many powwows, loves the drum and dance and song. He speaks a little bit of Lakota - which comes from his father's side - and has learned respect for our beliefs and traditions."
Read Grail Media's groundbreaking
new book on contemporary
Native American Issues
INVISIBLE INDIANS
Published by Grail Media, Sept 2005
Mixed-Blood Native Americans Who are Not Enrolled in Federally Recognized Tribes
By David Arv Bragi
Distributed by Lulu, Inc.
$19.95, Trade Paperback
or view an excerpt
in PDF format.
