My grandfather was a registered citizen Potawatomi I’ve always known I was a Potawatomi now I’m 42 and I have always felt like something is missing and Being I never known about my people or my heritage going to try to register if anyone could help would be appreciated
GO GO GO!!! KEEP LOOKING AHEAD!!!I HAVE MAJOR LOVE IN KY HEART FOR ALL Native American people but feel especially close to Michigan tribes as it is were I live , born and raised, I'm so glad to see this
I'm sorry, but Citizen Potwatomi Nation is a "tribe" that consists of predominately white people. These people are about as native as I am white. I was shocked when I saw photos of the tribal council and other members because none of them look like the members in my tribe. No brown or tan skin in sight. It turns out that they did away with blood quantum requirements in the 80s and now all you need is to be related (no matter how distant or be a descendant) to an enrolled member and be able to prove it somehow. I myself am biracial, my father being black and my mother being half native and black, which makes me 1/4 native. I was able to enroll via blood quantum. And I think that as long as you have some degree of native blood, you're native. I get that some tribes get so small that they can't enroll many people with blood quantum, but doing away with it all together isn't really a great idea either because that opens the door to people who have little to no connection with the tribe to enroll and get benefits. There's already so many pretendians out there who try to lie about their ancestry and enroll just to get per capita payments. It honestly feels like this is a huge case of white folks hijacking indigenous culture and calling it their own. If I had for example, Asian people in my family tree that I could trace, I would not call myself an Asian person or try to claim Asian culture because one of my great, great, great grandfathers was Asian! Do you see how ludicrous it sounds? You can appreciate the culture, get involved in other ways, but to racially identify as a native when you don't have a close/direct family member who has native blood, is strange to me.
So you argue for the Colonizer's systems they imposed on our communities, because the council look closer to white people than Natives, which ignores Neshnabe history with French Traders and the Métis history? What if a tribe consisted of people who "looked" predominantly Asian or Black, would you still argue for it then? Even if those members have built and maintained relationships with their communities, you'd still take away their rights just because they didn't satisfy a % requirement? What if your tribe adopted a harsher BQ requirement that would deny even the likes of you "recognition" even though you've done a great deal of work for your people? I don't think we should be forcing enrollment via proof of BQ. That not only reinforces blood purity which is the opposite side of the same coin as White Supremacy, but it also opens the door to evil politics, like the examples I mentioned before. Another reason is because the whites forced it on us in the first place to "eugenics" us out of existence, so there could be no "true Indian representative" to argue for our sovereignty and treaties, which they don't even teach about in public schools. I get your argument about a tribe perhaps being overrun with outsiders to abuse power and resources that don't belong to them, but what are you really saying here? I don't think tribes are that stupid to let people in that have no connection to them outside of shady/sketchy family stories about some unknown Native ancestor. Yes, people pretending to be Native to get access to spaces and resources is an issue, even outside of the tribe's communities like in work spaces or academic spaces meant for Natives. It's a difficult topic for sure given all the effort the Colonizers have done to separate us from our communities for the purpose of assimilation. If a tribe has full control over recognition and membership, it should be up to them to decide how they go about it, not Blood Quantum. True sovereignty won't be achieved with the enemies' weapons.
It’s not up to you to decide how The Potawatomi Nation handles their tribal enrollment and identity. He’s recognized by his nation and that’s all that matters in Indian country. Also, there are full blood Potawatomi. Colonialism & genocide happened and unfortunately most Indigenous & Black folks in this nation has White blood. It’s ludicrous to deny him his birth right & heritage because of that.
