Guest Column: Assimilation or Elimination

Throughout my whole college experience, when people find out I’m Native American, I get one of two responses: “That means you get college for free right?” or “That’s awesome I’m one-sixteenth Navajo (or insert a different tribe name)”. Many people do not understand the racist and harmful undertones that come with these questions. To clarify, I do not feel as though people asking these questions have bad intentions. Quite the opposite, I believe people want to connect to others and that is a way for people to connect: to find common ground and relate to the person they are having a conversation with. But it is important to know the origins of these questions. 

The first question to ask yourself is why do we care about how much Native blood runs in our veins? The first use of a blood quantum law can be traced to the colonies of the United States. Virginia was the first colony to instate a law defining Native Americans as full-blooded or half-blooded. It was primarily used to exclude Native Americans from being citizens and denying them rights to do things that white people could do. Today the United States government, specifically the Department of the Interior, issues certificates verifying that people are Native American. This can be legally used as an ID card and usually requires a person to have 25% Native blood (depending on the tribe). The issue with this form of identification is Native people will eventually breed themselves out of identity. This lets the federal government not keep treaties with Native nations and is a harmful way of thinking about identity. Think about asking a Black person how Black they are, then saying something like “Well, I’m one- sixteenth Black”. It sounds out of place and rude, but blood quantum is so instilled in the idea of Native America that it is a common to ask, “How Native are you?”. And some people think this is a good form of identity measurement because of all the “free things” given to Native people through the United States government. 

People have told me people would take advantage of being Native American without blood quantum’s. A big stereotype of Native Americans is they are lazy and get everything for free. I had multiple instances in my life where people say Native Americans just feed off the government and they take advantage of the lands “given” to them. For anyone who has lived on or even visited, a reservation will quickly see there 

isn’t much luxury. Most of the land Native Americans were forced to live on was unusable for crops, lacked wildlife, and caused Native people to rely on the United States government. Many people bring up the point that you can leave the reservation, but that could mean leaving your family, traditions, and acceptance from your tribe. I believe the reason the U.S. government did this is to assimilate Native America. Aside from the literal interpretation that the U.S. government is tossing it’s problems to the side, the assimilation theory is only reinforced when you look at the Lost Generation. The Lost Generation is the Native children forced to go to boarding schools, much like those in Canada where the bodies of Native children are being found. A rift grew between those forced to go to boarding school and the other members of the tribe. Those children were not accepted by the members of the tribe because they associated with white people and the white people didn’t view the Native children with the same value as their white counterparts. In fact, you could say those who were in charge of the Native children didn’t view them as humans. My grandma is a part of this generation and I have not heard my grandma talk about her experiences because of how horrendously they treated her. The United States and Canada aren’t the only governments that did this though. The Australian government refer to this as the Stolen Generation. None of the governments were subtle about the purpose of this either. It was to force these children to be involved with white culture. The problem is they took these children away from their family and caused them to not have a place in either the Native community or the society of the government that is supposed to be looking after them. The government didn’t give any resources to work through the immense trauma caused by the abuse. When people say to me “you’re so lucky you get school for free!” (which I don’t), what they fail to recognize is the immense trauma that generations of Native people went through and still go through to get those “handouts”. 

When finding my own Native identity there are two moments that always stick out to me in my mind. The first one was when I was working as a photographer for a Native American museum. The museum would frequently have children come on field trips to view its artifacts. The museum would always allow the kids to ask questions. One frequent question was: “Are there any Native Americans still alive today?” The majority of the staff at the museum are Native American and enthusiastically answer, “You are 

talking to some right now.” While it is fun that you can say you are talking to one, it can still hurt when they don’t believe you. The other experience was when I was much younger. I personally didn’t grow up on a reservation, I grew up in Kaysville. When Thanksgiving comes around, the elementary school I went to usually held a play representing the first Thanksgiving. At the time I was assigned to be a pilgrim and I remember my parent getting upset about it. I always knew I am Native American, but for some reason the idea of being a pilgrim didn’t bother me. Everyone else was acting like something/someone they are not. I could be white for an evening. Now, looking back, I can see how a teacher who didn’t know my identity putting me in the role of the people who slaughtered Native Americans would be harmful. Looking at the situation as a whole, it is harmful to teach Native people are only part of ancient America. It would be beneficial to show children what Native America looks like today. Part of that is exposing the truth about what the United States government did to Native people after that “peaceful” Thanksgiving Day. 

Throughout my whole life I have had to grapple with the idea of being a Native American. The question of what makes me “Native enough” isn’t an easy question to escape when the first response people have to your identity is “how Native are you?” or “do you get handouts?” But it helped me to refine what makes someone Native: finding culture, keeping practices, and being willing to embrace traditions passed from my parents/grandparents. The amount of blood you have in your body may be the sociolegal definition of what a Native American is, but it doesn’t begin to define what it truly means to be Native American. Most Natives I meet are very hard working, willing to do anything for their families, and care deeply about the earth. When making connections with Native people it could be good to think about what you are asking. Perhaps asking a Native person “what is your tribe?” and then learning more about their tribe could be a more effective way to go about making a connection. Learning about what it is like growing up on a reservation, or learning from the Native community what it means to be Native American to them. Being part-Native yourself (no matter how small) can be a big deal. You can be a positive change to the community when you learn about problems and find out ways to help resolve them. I don’t want to take away from the sincerity of the connection, but have people think about how you are connecting. 

Nathaniel Gillis is part of the Arikara Tribe from North Dakota. He grew up in Kaysville, Utah and currently is studying Broadcast Journalism here at USU.

ngillis312@gmail.com