The Balance of Authority between Federal and Tribal Governments
The historical basis for the problem that American Indians face in adapting to American society while maintaining their identity is complex. The colonial settlements during the early 18th century forced many American Indian groups who had exceedingly appreciative and welcoming attitudes of other cultures, race, and ethnic groups led them to question their policy in order to save their identity from moving from becoming another marginalized ethnicity (Steinman 225). The strained relationship between the U.S and American Indians has made the U.S legislative and legal systems reluctant to address issues pertaining to the survivability of their identity. As a result, the American Indians …show more content…
The rationality of why American Indians have resorted to tactics that in the long-term are counterintuitive to their societies attempt to conserve their identity as a race. Hence, how can the American legislative and legal systems address the survivability of tribal identity by clarifying legal definitions, laws, and treaties without infringing on their right to be sovereign?
For an example, the division of legal definitions of what it is to be “American Indian” differs between the federal and tribal governments (Garroutte 224). The legal definitions of what it is to be "American Indian" is one of the many roots of the cause of why American Indian societies are destroying themselves (Garroutte 224). The broad precedent created by the Supreme Court has allowed American Indian groups lots leeway in determining who is who. One aspect of tribal authority leading to less American Indians in tribes is the ability to set standards for citizenship (Garroutte 224). Of course, all tribes are allowed an absolute legislative authority to make a definition anyway …show more content…
The use of blood quantum is an old principle that comes from colonial policy back in the 18th century. Colonists used it as a way to sort people into hierarchies creating a social class system (Schmidt 225). For an example during the nineteenth and early twentieth-century blood quantum was thought as the transmission of cultural characteristics labeled some as, ‘half-breeds’ and expected them to behave ‘half-civilized’ and so on. This is reflective of American Indians society in an attempt to preserve their purity have adopted the policy to sort people out of the tribe who do not carry 25% American Indian blood (Russell 4). For an example, say, an offspring from a full-blood Navajo mother and a white father is one-half Navajo. If that half Navajo offspring, in turn, produced another offspring with a Sioux person of one-quarter blood degree, that offspring would be judged to have three-eighths general Indian blood (Garroutte 225). Certain tribes require not only those citizens possess tribal ancestry but also that this ancestry comes from a particular parent, so even if a person fulfills the blood quantum levels it also comes to whether the tribe determines it on a matriarchal or patriarchal basis (Garroutte 225). Moreover, there are numerous tribal laws that have gained traction to