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In an article I read by Chief Smith (Cherokee West) there are many who are American Indian but were not listed on Dawes Roll or lived in Oklahoma on the correct date and there is no way they are being excepted into a tribe by virtue of these rolls. This would be unfair because that leaves the question for us all, which is “How much Indian blood does it take to be an Indian.” I feel that my extended family in this world is my Family if they contain 1 Drop of Indian blood. So inhuman to do this by our Federal Rolls. I have 6 family members on both East and west Rolls (Dawes and Baker) but I am no more or less an Indian than those not on this roll. Any comments here! Also DNA proof is still not excepted in many tribes. So sad the Indian Nations have lost their way and the people know not who they are.
In terms of how genetic testing sites determine your relatives it’s the one drop rule. Where it’s from doesn’t matter. The internet is like one virtual global tribe in a way.
American tribes are land-based as well as blood-based. So even if you have the DNA if you moved away you aren’t part of the tribe. The land has the spirits of the people who lived there before so I can understand that reason. I also understand the tribes not wanting to accept DNA because the testing results are not always accurate. They are changing all the time based on what people report as their ancestry. There is limited data/cooperation for many tribes.
What the federal governments of the US and Canada have done has been illegitimate from past to present. The system was designed to erase people’s identity. Non-cooperation with this system is what has kept identity alive in our families.
This leaves people like us in limbo government-wise. We are mixed and have been for hundreds of years. The government only started allowing ‘two or more races’ on the census in the 2000s.
When I get frustrated I look at the Métis in Canada. They have had a healthy tri-racial identity for a long time and their stories have many good lessons.
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