A view of Cibuque, a community on the Fort Apache Reservation in Arizona. Photo by Phillip Capper / Flickr

The White Mountain Apache Tribe of Arizona might change its blood quantum standard.

According to the constitution, membership is open to people with at least one-half Indian blood, provided that one-fourth comes from White Mountain Apache blood. A proposed amendment removes the one-half Indian blood component and lowers the White Mountain blood standard to one-eighth.

The issue is due to be considered in a Secretarial election that is scheduled for May 10, Gwendena L. Real Bird, the tribe's public information officer, wrote in The White Mountain Independent. The Bureau of Indian Affairs will oversee the vote.

The tribe has requested to proceed under the BIA's old Secretarial election regulations, not the new ones that were finalized last October, Real Bird said.

The tribe has nearly 16,500 members and the rolls are expected to increase if the change is approved.

Get the Story:
Tribe to vote on requirements for enrollment (The White Mountain Independent 2/10)

Federal Register Notice:
Secretarial Election Procedures (October 19, 2015)
Secretarial Election Procedures (December 17, 2014)
Secretarial Election Procedures (October 20, 2014)
Secretarial Election Procedures (October 9, 2014)

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BIA encourages tribes to assert more control over internal affairs (10/19)