The Myth of Native American Blood - The Hyphenated Life - Boston.com

3.6.12

The Myth of Native American Blood - The Hyphenated Life - Boston.com: The dominant framework for Native American identity, Tallbear said, operates on the level of citizenship: Cherokees know they are Cherokee because of a complex history of legal treaties, and because they can document a connection to tribes whose members were identified and listed in official rolls. Were those rolls, which date back to the 1800s and were largely dictated by federal agents, flawed? Certainly. "You have to imagine, you're literally lining up all the Native Americans in a tribe and inevitably it's 'Your dad's white, your mom's Indian, let's make a decision,' " Tallbear said. "Federal agents were also using non-tribal ideas about belonging. But those base rolls are what we have inherited, and that's what we use."