ELMO — It's a question of lineage and Indigenous ancestry, and now the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) are asking their members serious questions about blood quantum — and that can impact the future of the tribes.
“Blood quantum was established to do away with us,” noted Camo Kapapa owner Keya Birdsbill-Camel.
Blood quantum is a term you hear often amongst Indigenous people because, under the Indian Blood Law, they have to prove their quantity of blood to be an enrolled tribal member.
“I think being tribal is more important to me than being enrolled because blood quantum and, and being enrolled, that was something that was established by the federal government,” Keya said.
Keya is a Kootenai enrolled tribal member and she believes that blood quantum doesn't define your lineage and current existence.
“I grew up with my grandparents, I took care of my grandparents and they shared with me about a time different than today's world,” Keya told MTN.
Some Indigenous people like Keya believe that blood quantum makes it harder to be recognized as a tribal member when many have mixed blood and multiple affiliations.
“I think being tribal and, and learning and understanding and practicing those traditions and values are to me much more important than a card or a piece of paper that says I'm a fraction of an Indian.”
But not all tribal members share this belief — such as Keya's husband Louie Camel — who is a Salish enrolled tribal member, “My stand is that we should just keep it where it's at.”
CSKT launched a recent study to address tribal enrollment issues and Louie's concern is that opening enrollment may cause population and resource issues down the road for tribal members.
“I mean, if they … you know, open enrollments and we get … you know, less than quarter … like 1/16 or whatever, just barely anything, you know, it's just like, then why do we even have a reservation? Louie said.
The CSKT Tribal Council has appointed a Tribal Enrollment Committee to study the issue of current enrollment. According to public records, there were only 10 new tribal members enrolled last year with a death toll of 120 tribal members.
“Like I said, the lower we go and pretty soon they wanna lower it some more and pretty soon and then there's nothing lower too,” Louie told MTN.
We reached out to the Tribal enrollment advisory committee and they declined to comment at the time. The study will be open for public comment from tribal members until December.
