A New Story—All Over Again

 

September 22, 2011

I am not an expert in American Indian identity specifically; however the recent racially heated controversy in the Cherokee Nation makes me wonder about what it means to multiracial people. While we at Project RACE are supporting multiracial people of any mix, the Cherokee Nation is advocating the rejection of freedmen American Indians, particularly those who claim both Cherokee and black “blood” in their heritage.

It is a complicated issue. As far as I can tell, it gets down to “blood quantum.” It reminds me of the old racist one drop rule—if you had one drop of black blood, you were considered black—which never was an actual law. Who is measuring blood here? If black blood trumps white blood, then just how does American Indian blood trump black blood?

My biggest questions are these: Why should any blood trump any other blood? Is this racism by the Cherokee Nation? Racism is racism and is wrong no matter who is proclaiming it. The freedmen were black slaves of the Cherokees in their ancestral homelands, and when they were forced to relocate, some took the freedmen with them. A treaty signed in 1866 guaranteed tribal citizenship for the freed slaves, whether or not they had any Cherokee blood relatives. Now the US Bureau of Indian Affairs and other government agencies are locked in a battle with the Cherokee Nation and funds are being withheld until the dispute is resolved. That’s the short version.

A temporary agreement was reached this week, so that the freedmen can vote for the next tribal chief. They can have the vote be certified as legal, but this complex issue is far from over. The federal lawsuit brought by the freedmen to be able to keep the right to vote, and other American Indian benefits will continue to be settled in the courts. Many people see this as a financial feud, because of the possibility of losing government funding, but it’s so much more than that for the people involved.

Many factors enter into a person’s identity including: language, traditions, customs, location, family, friends, birthplace, and simply how things are done around here. Multiracial children, teens, adults and their families should have the choice of how they choose to identify themselves, not a tribe, clan, or social group, and certainly not the state or federal government.

I recently watched the amazing documentary “Mann v. Ford.” It is the story of the Ramapough Indian Tribe who actually are mostly black American Indians. It’s the story of how Ford Motor Company victimized the Ramapough by poisoning their land with toxic waste dumps. Then, as now, multiracial people are not a protected class, which a government official reminded me of recently.

I remember when my young son, Ryan, and I had a meeting with one of the top executives at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in Washington, DC. It was good to be invited to the table so close to the office of the President of the United States.

The first thing she said to us was, “My son is sort of biracial, so I understand completely. His father celebrates Hanukah and I celebrate Christmas, so we have a Hanukah tree!” and she laughed. I thought to myself, she doesn’t really get it. Then she told us that a group of “Native Indians” had come to see her, and begged her not to allow a multiracial classification or be able to check two or more categories on the census and other official forms in this county.

“They cried. They shed tears in my office,” she told us.

I asked her why they were against it and she said they did not want to “lose Indian numbers” and they were very emotional about it. We proceeded to tell her our position of people choosing to embrace their entire heritage and the importance of self-identification. It still strikes me as absurd that any of us has to have the sanctions or repercussions of the government for racial and ethnic identity.

At the beginning of the meeting, she had dispatched an underling to get “some of those M&M boxes for Ryan.” The underling came back, out of breath, at the end of the meeting with two boxes of M&M candies with a picture of The White House on them. The top executive smiled and looked pleased as she presented them to my son.

At the end of the day, should the United States government really decide who is of what race or races? Should they be able to tell you what you are? What your children are? Can you still be Cherokee and Black? At the end of our day at the OMB, my son and I got in the elevator. He looked at me and said with the wisdom of a 10-year-old, “Mom, it looks like all we got today was M&Ms.”

 

Susan Graham

Executive Director , Project RACE