Opinion

Wambli Sina Win: Pretendians -- the hostile takeover of tribes

Monday, June 27, 2011

I received an overwhelmingly response from my red brothers and sisters regarding my recent commentary, “Tribes Should Protect Their Bloodline.” At the request of the majority, I offer this follow up.

Who defines an Indian tribe? Is it non-Indians, “pretendians,” “the anti-Indian wannabes,” or descendants of Custer who would define Indian tribes as minimally Indian as possible? I have never heard a real Indian man or woman promote or acknowledge the white, black or Mexican as genetically superior to Indians.

If this is what some are advocating, one must ask “Who is hiding in your closet? It’s easy for an internet “pretendian” to masquerade as an Indian behind a computer screen or in a blog. But it takes courage to show your face and who you really are. As I have said in the past, “the truth hurts.” Why aren’t the minimal bloods proud of their majority European ancestry? Economics, of course! After all, there is gold in the Black Hills.

Since the turn of the century and most recently because of the profitability of gaming, it has been economically beneficial for the white man to trace Indian ancestry back a hundred years or so ago to some lone Indian. It’s called “genealogy” research. As I have said before, if a person is 1/100th Indian, they are 99% something other than Indian. Who are they trying to fool? What part of the person is the tribe giving benefits to? The 1% Indian or the 99% non-Indian?

A leader personifies who and what their people are. If a so called “Chief” or “Governor” is 1/100th Indian, who is he or she representing? Will his or her loyalty be to the majority of his or her ancestry? Think very carefully about who you elect and the requirements for leadership positions. Do you have an Indian Chief or Custer representing you?

I recall my Grandfather’s words of caution, “Never trust a white man. He’ll choose frog skins over redskins every time.” As a lawyer, I know this to be true. When tribes contract with non-Indian lawyers to represent them in court, the Indian always seems to come up on the losing or the “settlement” side. How many times have these traitors sabotaged Indian tribes? Look at the Cobell settlement. The law firms never fought any tough battles in court. They “settled” and sold the Indians out. How much are the poor Indians getting and how much are a few individual lawyers getting? It is a joke.

In Oklahoma not long ago, the proud Osage had oil and wealth from headright income and they were preyed upon by treacherous greedy whites who married then murdered the Osage for their oil money. These bloodsuckers seem to come in all forms and they contribute nothing to the Indian bloodline or culture but they do siphon off as much resources as they are allowed.

Recently I took my Native American grandchild to an IHS clinic and I saw that it was overrun by white people. How much do these people of minimal blood contribute culturally or financially to any tribe? The Indian has been bred out of them and all that remains is a greedy disgruntled white person with their hands out. Haven’t they taken enough?

It is a great injustice when a person can go back 100 years to find the “Indian in the cupboard” or use DNA testing to push their way onto tribal rolls. This will eventually be the undoing of tribes who allow this. Mark my words. The greedy white man and his ideals would even seek to own the stars. His greed is greater that what his eyes can see, even beyond the horizons and all that is above and below. The greed of the white man extends to our culture and the sacred intangibles. These “pretendians,” “tagalongs,” “wannabes” and minimal bloods have carefully observed and mimicked our sacred ceremonies so they could exploit our ceremonies for profit later on.

In 2009, my son was asked to build a sacred sweat lodge for the Eastern Shawnee Ceremonial Chief. A few weeks later, my son was horrified to discover that an individual who was present at the lodge construction, recreated our sacred lodge for an Eastern Shawnee youth group and tried to pass it off as a “traditional Eastern Shawnee dwelling.” This is characteristic of those “pretendians” who unashamedly appropriate and steal the culture of others. This lodge was pictured in the Eastern Shawnee monthly newsletter, “The Shooting Star, “ for all to see. This made my Heyoka son, the eyes and ears on earth of the Wakinyan (Thunder Beings), very angry.

Another theft involves the theft of Lakota names. I was named after my great-grandmother in a traditional Lakota naming ceremony in 1959. My name was stolen after my grandfather’s death by a white man who “bestowed” my great-grandmother’s name upon a stranger. This white man disregarded our Lakota spiritual protocols and the fact that our names are hereditary in nature. One must be worthy to carry an ancestor’s name. This white man disrespected Lakota tradition and my family.

I have never seen any real Indian promote cultural genocide by encouraging the dilution of Indian blood. A tribe is not perpetuated by non-Indian blood and that is a fact. If our ancestors had taken the attitude of these “pretendians” 500 years ago, we would not exist as Indians today.

My life and my children have been a tangible example of maintaining Native American culture and upholding traditional Native American marriage. Also by example, I instilled within my own family, pride by naming my children Lakota names. My Heyoka son and his wife, my daughter-in-law, are both Native Americans who are proud of their Native American bloodline. In a white man’s world and in the rebel Heyoka tradition, their children’s legal names are Native American names which are on their birth certificates. They know who they are and have great pride in their ancestors’ struggles in the past to perpetuate their bloodline. They know how valuable this is.

One may call a person who is interested in protecting their identity, racial integrity and culture a “supremacist.” And if that is the case, I am a supremacist. I believe in the perpetuation and continuation of my race, language and culture. Native Americans as a race are a beautiful people. Native ideals and pride must start at home. There are over 566 federally recognized Indian tribes in this country. For an Indian in this country, there are plenty of Indian men and women to fall in love and have children with. No problems with incest here, that seems to be more a white man’s problem.

We Native Americans must promote our own heroes and reestablish pride in our race and promote our own role models for our young children. Our youth must be taught to be proud that they are Indians, not blacks, Mexicans or whites. It is disgraceful that gangs and rappers have taken over and replaced our traditional warrior role models. This should not be acceptable to anyone who claims to be Indian.

We have our own proud heritage, language and culture. Tribes are bigger than gangs and have a much prouder history. We must love, protect and promote our race if we intend to survive as a people. Tribes are for Indians not outsiders. We cannot allow these hostile takeovers by greedy, pushy minimal bloods. Indian tribes are not country clubs selling memberships for the white, Mexican, or black people. They have their own culture, race and history, we must defend our own.

Dual citizenship is a step towards preserving total blood quantum of tribal members. This will protect, increase, and promote blood quantum. This might serve as an incentive and reward for Native Americans to marry other Native Americans despite differences in tribal membership. This should help to prevent further dilution of the blood quantum for children whose parents are multi-tribal.

In order for Indian tribes to protect tribal resources, they must consider benefits vs. blood quantum with benefits going to those who are really Indians. Why should a tribe give 100% support for a person who is 99% white or 1/64th white? It took many generations for the Indian blood to be bred out to reach this minimal level. This “breeding out” of Indian blood was a choice which the ancestors of these minimal bloods continued time after time. These minimal bloods are a European product, not a reflection of Native American ideals, choices or Native American identity.

The defense of one’s bloodline, culture, language, spirituality and traditions are ideals based on reality and necessity, not hate. My Heyoka son has prophesied that in the near future, termination will be revisited by Congress and imminent domain will be the instrument used to seize the remaining tribal lands for their resources.

Besides tangible resources, what is at stake is also the intangible, our sacred ceremonies. Does it make anyone angry to see a blonde haired, blue eyed person with skin whiter than a sheet of paper speaking of Native American spirituality as if this person is an expert? If reading this article makes you angry, you should question “What culture has invaded your mind or bloodline”?

For some tribes, at meetings it’s impossible to talk about Indian issues such as Indian preference because the Indians are outnumbered by Custer’s group. The heart of the matter is that it is impossible to be Indian without having the bloodline and tribal membership and sovereignty that are being eroded by the non-Indian presence.

One must question at what point does one cease to be Indian? By having “accommodating” tribal enrollment and using DNA testing, tribes are making it possible for the creation of a “Frankentribe” of non-Indians who lack culture and blood quantum. Difficult times create competition for scarce resources. Tribes will soon experience if they have not already, a “hostile takeover” by greedy non-Indians who will seize leadership positions and gobble up scarce resources.

The current trend is as the blood quantum decreases, the number of non-Indians increases. Resources are finite so do the math. While there are still some real Indians left, make a stand. Rid yourself of these “pretendians” by adopting stricter blood quantum requirements. Save your tribe and your tribal resources for your Indian grandchildren.

Wambli Sina Win (Eagle Shawl Woman) is currently an Associate Professor and Director of the Bacone College Criminal Justice Studies Department in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Her grandfather was John Fire, Chief Lame Deer Tahca Uste, a well known Lakota Holy Man from the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota. One of her sons is also a medicine man. She has served as a Tribal Judge for the Oglala Sioux Tribal Court, as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, a Tribal Attorney and as a legal Instructor for the U.S. Indian Police Academy at Artesia, N.M. You may contact Wambli Sina Win, J.D. at wamblisinawin@yahoo.com She can be reached at wamblisinawin@yahoo.com.