Native Tribes Could Lose Federal Recognition of Tribal Sovereignty Under Trump | Teen Vogue

27.4.18

Native Tribes Could Lose Federal Recognition of Tribal Sovereignty Under Trump | Teen Vogue: The problem with calling tribal exemptions — and essentially, treaty and trust obligations — illegal racial preference is that it points to a flawed understanding of what native identity is. It is possible, historically accurate, and indeed increasingly common for a native individual to be multi-racial. There are millions of people with native heritage and some of those are tribal members who are not full blood. Traditionally, native nations did not ascribe to the idea of blood quantum, which defines one’s nativeness as what fraction of blood they possess from a government documented full blood tribal member ancestor.

We are not dogs or horses. It is the federal government who instituted the idea of blood quantum with the effect of mathematically terminating tribes.