Description
Those Who Belong: Identity, Family, Blood, and Citizenship among the White Earth Anishinaabeg explores how White Earth Anishinaabeg understood identity and blood quantum in the early twentieth century, how it was employed and manipulated by the U.S. government, how it came to be the sole requirement for tribal citizenship in 1961, and how a contemporary effort for constitutional reform sought a return to citizenship criteria rooted in Anishinaabe kinship, replacing the blood quantum criteria with lineal descent. This book illustrates the ways in which Anishinaabeg of White Earth negotiated multifaceted identities, both before and after the introduction of blood quantum as a marker of identity and as the sole requirement for tribal citizenship. Doerfler’s research reveals that Anishinaabe leaders resisted blood quantum as a tribal citizenship requirement for decades before acquiescing to federal pressure. Constitutional reform efforts in the twenty-first century brought new life to this longstanding debate and led to the adoption of a new constitution, which requires lineal descent for citizenship. Jill Doerfler (White Earth Anishinaabe) is Associate Professor and Department Head of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota–Duluth. The volume contains Revised Constitution and Bylaws of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota and The Constitution of the White Earth Nation. The book has a detailed index and a bibliography. Recommended for scholars interested in the U. S. approach to First Nation citizenship and an insider's perspective on an Anishinaabe community's approach to blood quantum and identity.