Just over 500 years ago, there were these white European explorers who, in the name of god, gold, and glory, sailed west in search of delicious and shiny new things.
After several months at sea, they “discovered” the Americas and claimed them in the names of their Western kings. The problem with their “new world”, besides the fact that it wasn’t all that new to begin with, having been discovered at least forty thousand years prior, is that it was already inhabited—by millions of Indigenous peoples whose love of bathing, science, mathematics, and non-Judeo-Christian spirituality deeply offended the newcomers' "civilized" sensibilities.
This of course was intolerable to the European emigres; these champions of Manifest Destiny spread a blanket of disease and “democracy” across the continent, transforming the lives and genealogy of Indigenous people forever.
Despite everything, we are still here. Since 1492 we have endured systemic oppression, cultural alienation, genocide, displacement, environmental destruction, banning of our spiritual/traditional practices, hate crimes, rape, and barriers to equal opportunities–atop this, the appropriation of the very identities denied to us.
Identity appropriation, at its best, is a nuisance, whereby people make frivolous claims like “my great grandmother was Pocahontas.” At its worst, it results in non-natives’ unsubstantiated claims to Indigenous heritage in an ad hominem effort to justify anti-indigenous actions and rhetoric.
I’m talking about white people who justify running around in “Native American” headdresses, that they bought at Party City, because they’re allegedly 1/16th “Native American.”
Indigenous appropriation not only belittles our experiences as Indigenous people, it drowns out our voices amidst a sea of non-natives who undermine those concerns with the justification that they have Indigenous heritage and are therefore authorized to to speak on indigenous issues. Indigenous appropriation victimizes and invalidates Indigenous peoples’ voices, which carry the weight of real concerns for our communities.
It's important that I be clear. I am–not–stating that people with mixed or non-indigenous ancestry cannot claim Indigenous identities. Furthermore, I’m not saying that all people who claim possible Indigenous descent are not entitled to do so. As an indigenous person of mixed ancestry myself, I understand full well how the issue of identity appropriation is frequently conflated with that of blood quantum: both sensitive topics amongst many Indigenous people.
To understand why these issues are so important and controversial to many of us–let’s talk culture and historical context.
Blood quantum is a concept which refers to the amount of blood or genetic ancestry that an individual may have from a specific bloodline. Among Indigenous communities, it is generally assumed that prior to colonization, an Indigenous person’s genealogy would be comprised exclusively of Amerindian ancestry. Colonization took very different forms across the vast expanse of the American continents, however, as is typical of any incidence of colonialism—it was not without copious incidences of interracial sex and sexual assault. Now, in the wake of its aftermath, here we stand as Indigenous people, but not without frequent instances of light skin, curly hair, or Spanish eyes.
Due to the variety of genetic diversity that many of our peoples possess, it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish some natives from non-natives. There are many natives, who because they may appear black or white passing, are often dismissed as non-native, by natives and non-natives alike. Though not quite White passing myself–I’m often described as ethnically ambiguous or "exotic"–my own genealogy is a veritable medley of Indigenous and European heritage.
For those of us mixed race natives, emphasis on blood quantum can be very stressful and exclusionary.
I am reminded of the words of an elder: “the mixed genealogy of native people today is like a scar that reminds us of all that we’ve survived, non-native blood–in any quantity does not make us less Indigenous."
Where some might agree with the notion that blood quantum shouldn't be regarded as qualifier of Indigenous identity, there are others who say that one must be full-blood and raised in their traditional cultures in order to qualify.
I don't know if there's a right or wrong answer. In my heart, however, I have to believe that what this elder teaches is true; in fact, history provides some examples that support the idea that blood quantum was not a tribal qualifier prior to colonization.
There is no single Indigenous culture; our cultures are each as diverse and unique unto themselves as individual cultures elsewhere in the world. Amerindian is referenced as the anthropological standard when describing Indigenous people of the Americas; there is no single unifying term embraced by all. Where in the US many of us refer to ourselves as Native American or Indigenous, different people favour different terms, sometimes even people within the same tribes or cultures: First Nations, Aboriginal, and American Indian, or simply Indian, are just some of the many English terms that some of us use, while others prefer to identify with their particular tribal/cultural identities and in their own colonial or traditional languages.
Prior to the European invasion, many Indigenous cultures were known to adopt members from other tribes, practicing inter-tribal marriages in much the same way as was practiced among European royalty. Some adoptions, and marriages, were done in in gestures of inter-tribal solidarity, some were done in exchanges of commerce, while others did so freely as a gesture of affection and sharing of cultural knowledge.
There is evidence that suggests that many pre-Columbian Indigenous peoples, though not all, were welcoming to people outside of their tribes and would share in ceremonies, medicine, and goods. In fact many cultures were famous for their generosity in welcoming the first European settlers. Taino, Arawaks, Iroquois, and Mexica, were among those best known for their peaceful generosity and hospitality with these newcomers.
Westerners discarded this generosity as a sign of naivete and exploited it to facilitate their “trojan horse” strategies of warfare against us—the truth is that such generosity is key to many of our people's’ identities and beliefs. I am reminded of something a fellow Mexica and teacher once taught me about upholding our ancestors’ values of community and not sinking to the level of the colonizers. “This is our way” he would say to me, the Mexica way.
Our ancestors’ survival required extreme adaptation to extreme oppression. As colonial expansion spread further throughout the continents and islands that comprise the Americas, many of our ancestors were forced to fight, hide, and/or learn to adapt to colonization for the sake of their survival. It is because of our ancestors’ sacrifices that our lineages and cultures are alive today.
In Mexico, a violent and social campaign of forced assimilation known as El Mestizaje strategically erased Indigenous peoples’ cultural history and identities by socializing them as a homogenized new race of Mestizos, loyal only to the Mexican government. In the US, native peoples who survived mass killings at the hands of the cavalries, were rounded up and placed into arbitrarily selected ghettos (reservations), and then forced to attend christian boarding schools intended to kill the Indian, save the man.
Blood quantum itself was a concept born early on in the burgeoning American colonies, where, for example, the colony of Virginia denied citizenship to individuals whose genealogy was more than 1/2 Indigenous, or of non-white origin. Similarly, throughout Latin America, Spanish colonists enforced a hierarchical caste system which elevated people of pure European ancestry above those with mixed or pure Indigenous and African ancestries, denying access to resources and equal rights to those who were not European.
Blood quantum, as many understand it today, is most closely connected to the Blood Quantum/Indian Blood Laws created by the US government under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. These laws, which were disingenuously portrayed as an endeavor to record and preserve tribal enrollment rolls, were truly used to to deny Indigenous people financial and legal benefits promised to members of Federally Recognized Native American tribes unless they could meet the arbitrary qualifiers set forth for tribal recognition. Throughout the United States today, different federally recognized tribes have managed their own blood quantum laws to determine enrollment eligibility. Where some tribes like the Kaw tribe in Oklahoma require 1/34 blood quantum for enrollment eligibility, other tribes require 1/16, ¼, and ½ blood quanta, like the Navajo, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, respectively.
These Blood Quantum Laws, which are embraced by some, have been regarded as problematic by others. While some regard them as discriminatory to Indigenous people of mixed race, or even mixed-tribal ancestry, others are denied tribal affiliation because of the difficulties posed in obtaining the legal documentation necessary to prove lineages to rolls created in the 19th and 20th centuries, which includes Indigenous individuals with absolutely no non-native ancestry.
Considering the many hardships which affect our communities, why do so many non-natives romanticize our Indigenous heritages? Furthermore, why do so many people want to believe their great grandmothers were Cherokee princesses? I don’t know.
Indigenous cultures are rich, complex and therefore exotified by non-natives. Non Natives want our spirituality, medicine, cultures, and reportedly amazing cheekbones. There may be no single answer for why our cultures and identities are treated as common property. It’s possible that some do so to connect to something outside of the increasingly homogenized White American consciousness, which has robbed many European descendents from connections to their own rich cultural heritages. It is also possible that people appropriate our identities because it seems fun and harmless, and nobody is there to tell them otherwise.
Whatever the reasons may be, appropriation of Indigenous identities, is itself in keeping with Manifest Destiny, the justified theft of Indigenous peoples’ homelands.
It makes perfect sense why blood quantum has become so important to so many Indigenous communities: we can’t trust white people.
In much the same way as it is identity appropriation for somebody like Rachel Dolezal to misrepresent herself as Black without any actual Black heritage, it is also appropriation for non-natives to usurp Indigenous identities. While being Indigenous is not just about blood, for people who have survived the greatest genocide in known history, it is justifiably important to fight, if need be, to keep our bloodlines alive and thriving, mixed or otherwise.
"If you have one drop of Indian blood in your veins you are Indian."
Black Elk, Lakota