“We Shall Remain,” a production from the PBS series, American Experience, to be aired in April, deals with issues facing the Native people of the United States. The one biggest issue not mentioned that should be a major concern of all the First Nations people of this country is blood quantum established by the federal government via the BIA.
We as First Nations people of this Turtle Island are the only culture or race of people that need to have a card or piece of paper to prove who or what we are. We must show our pedigree, much like a dog or horse, only the dog or horse gets better treatment from the great white culture than we do. If we continue with this blood quantum, our race as we know it will no longer exist.
Think about it: when your child grows up and has a child, that offspring’s blood quantum will be reduced by one half or one quarter and so on. This will continue with each future generation until there will no longer be a race of Indians because the blood quantum has gotten so low or has disappeared altogether, and then the great white culture will no longer have to honor any treaties they have with us, which they don’t anyway.
This is a form of genocide by the federal government against the original people of this Turtle Island and we need to get rid of it. Don’t we at least have that right? Let us unite and fight for our right to exist as a race of people. Let the ruling governments, tribal and federal, know we don’t want or need blood quantum [policies].
– Kenn Mitchell
Cass Lake, Minn.
