JD Colbert: Offering a new kind of formula for tribal membership

Tuesday, July 5, 2011  

“What was given to the (Mvskoke) tribal towns in the beginning, and to be kept and rekindled periodically? What are the major ingredients in Sofkey? Traditional Stomp dance grounds are often headed by whom? In the story, How Day and Night were divided, what did Wotko have that made Chewthlockchew think? Article I, Section 3 of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Constitution deals solely with what?”

These questions are a small sampling of the 400 questions that high school participants in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Challenge Bowl must be prepared to answer. Participants in the Challenge Bowl sit in front of a panel of Mvskoke Elders (the experts) who pose these questions concerning Mvskoke culture, language, history and government. The Elders then assess whether the participant(s) have answered correctly.

The competition is among teams of four people. Two teams are present before the panel of Elders who pose a question from among the 400 questions in the Mvskoke Study Guide. Participants use the Study Guide in preparation for the competition.

When asked one of these questions, team members will quickly smash an answer button, a la the quiz show Jeopardy!, and offer their answer. The team that answers the most questions correctly moves to the next round. Eventually team champions are recognized in the three divisions of competition; elementary middle and high school.

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Challenge Bowl is a fun and wonderful event for spectators but at the same time cause for high anxiety among the participants. This is an annual event and it is open to the public. If you ever get the opportunity to attend the Challenge Bowl, please do so.

Watching this year’s Challenge Bowl competition, I admired the Mvskoke knowledge of the students as well as, candidly, getting a kick out of their occasional malapropos (Q: What does the Creek word Estonkis ‘os mean? A: I don’t know. It’s all Greek to me!).

At some point, I found my mind wandering to the similarity of the Muscogee Challenge Bowl to that of the U.S. Citizenship test. Like the Challenge Bowl, the U.S. citizenship test demands knowledge of the U.S. history, culture, government and constitution. In order to attain U.S. citizenship, an immigrant applicant must display proficiency in a formal way across a wide range of appropriate subject matter.

In an Einsteinium epiphany, I not only discerned a connection between the Muscogee Challenge Bowl and the U.S. Citizenship test but also was able to articulate a tribal theorem relative to Einstein’s famous equation, to wit:

Blood Quantum + Cultural Fluency = Tribal Citizenship

What if the tribes decided that more than blood quantum (and/or “blood ancestry” for those tribes enrolling by lineal descent) was necessary and desirable to attain tribal enrollment and tribal citizenship? What if the tribes, generally free to set their own enrollment criteria, required proficiency across a body of knowledge relevant to their culture as demonstrated before a group of tribal Elders as a condition (in addition to blood quantum) to tribal citizenship?

Yes, it may take years to acquire this body of knowledge (and in my opinion, it would) let alone for that person’s life to reflect what I consider to be the signature Native values of eyasketv (to be humble), emetv (to be giving) and mekusvpetv (to be prayerful).

Would this not generally be a good thing for our tribes and for our people? Wouldn’t this also have the felicitous effect of “thinning the herd” of the crowd of people who want tribal membership solely for “the benefits”? And shouldn’t those who aspire to tribal leadership possess a basic level of knowledge of their people and tribal values?

Tribal blood is a divine gift of Creator. Those of us lucky enough to be so blessed did nothing to earn this gift. Whether it is one drop or 12 pounds of Native blood (the weight of the six quarts of blood said to be in every person), we simply have been blessed. It thus seems to me that some amount of effort should be required of those who apply for tribal membership (beyond the requisite paper chase of the enrollment process which admittedly can be daunting!).

We can never earn Creator’s blessing of Native blood but we can, and should, be expected to honor this blessing by at least making the effort to attain a base level of knowledge and proficiency of the ways, culture, history, language and government of “our tribe” and of “our people”.

Estecate En Fulletv is an Mvskoke phrase meaning “the ways or customs of Native people”. Knowledge of these ways is vitally important. There was a time when all of us as Native people learned these ways simply by growing up among our people.

Of course, that is still the case. But for many who otherwise qualify for tribal citizenship predicated solely on blood quantum, this vital knowledge is missing. These people were not further blessed to have been raised among our people and to thus have had instruction in Estecate En Fulletv.

We must therefore be very intentional about preserving, promoting and enlarging Estecate En Fulletv among our people, particularly those who aspire to become a tribal citizen. We can and should do this by articulating a body of cultural/language fluency as may be set forth by our tribal Elders. The tribal citizen applicant should then be required to demonstrate proficiency in this body of knowledge before gaining tribal citizenship.

Let me be clear; Native blood is and always will be the sine qua non for being Native. It is only from the inherent power and properties of this Native blood that a truly Native person may be molded and developed by being open and receptive to the teaching and instruction of a Native community in Estecate En Fulletv.

Thus, more than blood quantum or lineal descendency should be required when it comes to the paramount issue of tribal citizenship. This is especially compelling in our contemporary world where more and more tribal applicants for citizenship have had less and less connection to their Native communities and thus minimal, if any, knowledge of Estecate En Fulletv. I therefore propose the formula:

Blood Quantum + Cultural Fluency = Tribal Membership.

On to the Challenge Bowl!

J.D. Colbert is a member of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma.