A reminder on this #IndigenousPeoplesDay #IndigenousPeoplesDay2020 that many Black Native people are not enrolled in their tribes of origin because of historical and current anti-Black citizenship policies.
In the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations, descendants of people of African descent enslaved by tribal members are actively excluded from citizenship rights and tribal programs due to our ancestors’ statuses as enslaved people. We were promised citizenship in the Treaty of 1866.
Are we not “Indigenous” because our tribes have broken their treaty promises of citizenship? To exclude us from Indigeneity is to affirm our tribes’ anti-Black policies and histories. For many programs today, in order to be considered Indigenous, one must be enrolled
in a tribe. Many programs further require proof of “Blood Quantum”—an extremely anti-Black measure of Indigeneity. We must rethink these measures of Indigeneity in terms of how they relate to tribal histories of chattel slavery and anti-Black racism. #NoAntiBlackRacism
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