Why did the US government apply a one-drop rule to descendants of Africans? Why has it refused to apply the same rule to American Indians?
The reason is obvious.
During the days of slavery, it was in the interest of the ruling class to classify as many individuals as possible as Blacks, so, regardless of how many ancestors of European descent a person had, one Black ancestor made the person Black, to whom the presumption of liberty was denied. Even after the end of slavery, racial discrimination made the one-drop rule profitable, for the ruling class can pay Blacks less than whites for the same work. It is only in recent years -- after Blacks managed to begin to exercise a modicum of political power for instance as a voting block -- when the one-drop rule became loosened culturally, with an increasing number of richer Blacks being encouraged to claim a biracial or multiracial identity.
The ruling class interest with regard to American Indians has been the opposite of what it has been with regard to Blacks. The fewer members of Indian tribes there are, the less power the tribes have vis-a-vis the US government, especially when it comes to having their treaties honored and asserting their land rights; and the fewer Indian individuals there are, the fewer individuals to whom the US government is legally obligated to provide goods and services, for instance health care and education. See Nora Livesay's essay "Understanding the History of Tribal Enrollment" (at <http://www.airpi.org/pubs/enroll.html>) for a brief overview.
<blockquote>Census Restores Indian Roots 4.1 million Americans say they're at least partly Native American Carol Morello, Washington Post <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/04/15/MN184041.DTL> Sunday, April 15, 2001
Tahlequah, Okla. -- . . . In the 2000 Census, which, for the first time, allowed people to mark more than one race, 4.1 million Americans said they were at least partly Native American, more than double the 1990 figure. Both alone and in combination with another race, American Indian population numbers are soaring far beyond anything that can be explained by birthrate.
The growth is not surprising in states lying in the heart of Indian country, such as Oklahoma, where more than 11 percent of the population claims at least partial American Indian ancestry.
But the trend is striking in many states where Native American tribes and culture are sparse.
Experts and tribal officials say several factors explain the increase: gambling revenue, minority scholarships and affirmative action guidelines, widespread interest in genealogy and perhaps most important, the erosion of the stigma once borne by Native Americans.
"It's cool to be an Indian now," said Ummerteskee, who has watched her tribe more than double to 230,000 members over the past decade, rivaling the Navajo as the country's largest tribe.
The trend seems to be happening independently of a Census Bureau campaign to encourage Native Americans to fill out their census forms. For decades, their numbers have been disproportionately undercounted, in large part because of their historical mistrust of federal officials who came around to expropriate their land.
In the 2000 Census, many tribal officials encouraged their members to check only American Indian so they wouldn't dilute numbers that can be used for appropriating federal funds.
The census numbers even understate the vast number of Americans who can trace at least one root of their family tree to a Native American. Some were able to escape discrimination and "pass" as white, while others have become identified as another minority.
"There are millions of Americans with at least a little Indian ancestry," said Karl Eschbach, a University of Houston sociologist who has studied tribal identification. "When there was a 'choose one race' question, they always had to make a choice. They don't have to choose anymore."
But the choice raises questions about who has the right to claim, "I am an American Indian." Are people who know nothing of traditional culture still Native Americans because their grandparents were? Conversely, are people who follow the traditions faithfully any less so because of generations of intermarriage?
The questions are particularly apt for Cherokees. Since the first European settlers arrived in what they called the New World, many Native American tribes have tolerated and even welcomed those of mixed race. The Cherokees' most famous chief, John Ross, was seven-eighths Scottish. It was Ross who led the tribe westward to Indian Territory along the Trail of Tears when they were forced from their land in the East in the 1830s.
Today, American Indians often can state with hairsplitting precision what fraction of their parentage is Native American. In order to be enrolled as a Cherokee, for example, people must obtain from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood, quantifying their Indian ancestry to the 100th or even 1,000th degree.
Some tribes use this "blood quantum" as a standard for enrollment. One-quarter is a typical requirement. Other tribes require that members be direct heirs of Native Americans listed in an earlier roll. The Cherokees, for example, have members who are as little as 1/4,096th Indian.
But a bloodline considered too thin for tribal membership is no barrier to self-identification on the census.
"I'm one-eighth Nez Perce and one-sixth Cherokee, and the rest is Scotch Irish," said Melissa Lineberry, a retired teacher who lives near Roanoke, and organizes annual powwows in Virginia.
Lineberry, who says her great-grandmother was Cherokee and her great-great-grandfather took up with three Indian women, marked only white on her census form because her blood quantum is too low to qualify for tribal membership. In practice, she spends much of her spare time attending powwows across the country and studying Indian lore and traditions. She considers herself Native American.
"It's finally losing its stigma that encouraged families not to name their Native American heritage," she said.
Tribes across the country -- from the 550 that are federally recognized to the countless tribes so small and tenuous that even the states don't recognize them -- are scrambling to keep up with everyone who wants to join.
The Lumbees, a tribe of 40,000 in North Carolina, open their enrollment for only a few months every two or three years because they are swamped with thousands of applications. Many are descendants of Lumbees who moved away six or seven decades ago seeking jobs and now have practical reasons to re-establish a connection.
"They have children going away to college and want to get financial aid," said James Hardin, head of the Lumbee Regional Development Association. "Or they're in business and want to get a minority designation. Some folks who apply may not even be Lumbee. They're just hoping someday we'll have a casino."
But many tribal officials say most applicants simply come to their door in search of themselves.
"Most often the reason people give me is it's an identity issue," said Alex Ritchie, an official with the Tohono O'odham, a tribe of 24,000 in Arizona with a casino that earns each member $1,800 a year. "They're not Hispanic; they're not white; they're not black. They just want to know what they are."
Page A - 6</blockquote> -- Yoshie
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