This article is part of an ongoing series of stories by ICT examining the complicated issues of Indigenous identity.
Nika Bartoo-Smith
Underscore Native News+ ICT
Native nations have stepped up to provide their tribal citizens with proper documentation through tribal ID pop-ups with the escalating immigration raids and more reports of Native people being questioned, detained or arrested. However, it has many Native people asking if blood quantum should be a tribal citizenship criteria, as many Native people need it to obtain a tribal ID.
The irony of Indigenous peoples having to guard against being questioned about U.S. citizenship by a government created by European immigrants is not lost to people across Indian Country.
The increased immigration enforcement raids now impacting Native people are tied to the accepted use of racial profiling by ICE to determine citizenship status, said Matthew Fletcher, a federal Indian law professor at the University of Michigan.
In the 2025 Supreme Court case Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, the Supreme Court voted to support the continued use of racial profiling by immigration agents.
“People are arrested because they look brown, and it’s irrelevant to the ICE agent whether or not that person is a citizen or not,” said Fletcher, a citizen of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. He also runs the blog Turtle Talk, which focuses on legal issues impacting Indian Country.
As Native nations think about how to protect their tribal citizens in the face of immigration detention, the question of how tribes support their descendants has also come up.
Tribal descendants are individuals who can trace direct lineal ancestry to an enrolled member of a Native nation, but may not be eligible for enrollment themselves due to certain requirements, such as blood quantum. Many of the 575 federally recognized tribes in the US use blood quantum to determine citizenship.The blood quantum for enrollment ends at one-quarter for many tribes. It is a controversial way of tracking ancestry introduced by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In Minneapolis, Red Lake Nation descendant and US citizen Jose Ramirez was dragged out of his car and detained by immigration agents in early January. He is now being charged with assaulting an ICE agent during detainment.
In response to cases like Ramirez’s some tribes, like the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, have notified their citizens that they will reimburse the fees for them to obtain U.S. passport books and cards as well as REAL ID identification cards and driver’s licenses.
Native nations across the country have also begun hosting tribal ID pop-ups for citizens to obtain their tribal IDs for free.
There are reports of some nations that are also providing descendancy letters for first and second generation descendants at these pop-ups. Some of the nations providing these include the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, the White Earth Nation and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.
“Tribal descendants are in a tough spot because they lack tribal citizenship. They should keep any state identification, a photo of their birth certificate, and any U.S. passport on them at all times, as well as any federal CDIB [Certificate of Degree of Indian or Alaska Native Blood] card they may have,” Gabe Galanda, a citizen of the Round Valley Indian Tribes and founder of Indigenous rights law firm Galanda Broadman, told Underscore Native News + ICT.
He added that people who have been disenrolled from their tribe should also keep all forms of identification with them at all times.
“These forms of identification can help rebut any alleged reasonable suspicion or probable cause by ICE for an individual’s detention or arrest,” he said.
Legal experts have weighed in on the question of how to support descendants, noting that it is a much broader issue rooted in bigger conversations about the use of blood quantum to determine citizenship status.
“Perhaps this is a serious moment for tribal leadership to begin thinking about what it really means to live by the colonizer’s definition of ‘Indianness,’” Fletcher said. “Many tribal leaders I know — and many, many Native people — have accepted blood quantum as a proxy for identity. There is such a ridiculous number of Indigenous peoples who are not eligible for citizenship with their tribal nation due to blood quantum — people who speak the language, participate in the ceremonies, work for the tribe, live in tribal public housing, engage in treaty hunting and fishing, receive health care, and so on.”
Fletcher noted that not all Native nations use blood quantum to determine citizenship status, such as the Cherokee Nation which uses the Dawes Rolls. “To be eligible for Cherokee Nation citizenship, a person must have one or more direct ancestors listed on Dawes,” the nation’s tribal registration website states.
Beyond that, Fletcher said some nations have taken steps to legally render every tribal citizen 100 percent Indian as a matter of tribal law.
“What that does is it opens up the possibility that people could, who are currently first or second generation descendants that are excluded from tribal membership, enroll that way,” Fletcher said.
While many legal experts do advise carrying identification, there are many reports that even when people stopped by immigration agents are carrying valid identification, that may not always be enough.
In mid-January Peter Yazzie, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, was stopped by immigration enforcement agents on his way to work. He told ABC15 that he tried to show multiple forms of identification — including his Certificate of Indian Blood, a driver’s licence, and a birth certificate — but he was still detained.
In early November, Umatilla actress Elaine Miles was questioned by immigration agents, who then called her tribal ID “fake.” This is just one example of many reports of immigration agents not accepting tribal IDs, even though they are legally required to.
“I don’t think any identification matters to an ICE agent at the moment,” Fletcher said. “You could show them a birth certificate, you could be carrying one around your neck. They won’t care. They’re still going to arrest you, and all they have to do is say that’s fake. But that said, I think it’s really important that people read the guidance on what to do in case you are confronted with law enforcement.”
Jeremiah Chin, an assistant professor of law at the University of Washington, whose recent publications focus on the intersections of race, law, and Indigeneity, suggested that Native nations should set up hotlines and other connections to legal support networks to be easily accessible for their community members in case they are stopped by immigration agents.
In January, the National Congress of American Indians and the Native American Rights Fund hosted a “Know Your Rights” webinar about what to do in case of a potential encounter with immigration agents. More than 1,000 people from across the country registered for the virtual event.