Claiming Native American Identity
Note: Parts of this article are specific to Native Americans in the United States. I am not well acquainted with Canadian, Central American, and South American governmental policies.
“Harvey [Jackins] always said that we should claim all our identities, and the elders have always said that if a person has one drop of Native blood, we should welcome them home. When we are home, we are less likely to feel insecure. We are more grounded in reality. We have a greater possibility for greater vision. The elders and the prophecies say that Indigenous people will lead the world, so it makes sense to reach all Indigenous people and to have all Indigenous people working with their full intelligence.” —Marcie Rendon, International Liberation Reference Person for Native Americans
Claiming a hundred percent of all our heritages helps us to discharge and better understand the good thinking, richness, and distresses of those heritages. It also helps us understand our roles as oppressor and oppressed.
We all have a load of chronic distresses we don’t even know we have that are attached to our various identities. Discharging on these identities helps us better understand oppression, liberation, and our connections to each other and the world.
Those of us with Native American heritage can claim it, see what comes up, and discharge. We have Native thinking and distresses we don’t know we have, and this “not knowing” slows down the Native liberation movement.
We all—those of us with Native American heritage and those without—have serious re-emerging to do regarding Native American identity. Native American liberation will not progress well unless we clean up our distresses attached to the Native American identity. Marcie Rendon encourages all who have Native American heritage, even whispers [very little] of it, to do “coming home” work. (See the RC journal Heritage for a description of this work.) It is best to do it with people who have a similar identity, and it’s helpful to be in a support group and connect with Marcie and other Native leaders.
Marcie asked Barbara Boring to lead the Native Raised White constituency, which Barbara has done for seven years. Our work as Native Raised White people has moved Native liberation forward. We’ve been able to back [support] Native thinking and leadership in new ways.
Some “Native Raised Other” (Native raised Black, Latino/a, or Asian) groups have also formed and are making great headway [progress]. The first Native Raised Other workshop happened last year.
RESPECTING TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY
Native Americans are sovereign people. They have distinct legal rights that are different from those of other U.S. and Canadian citizens. In the United States, a trust relationship and treaty agreements provide tribal sovereignty rights to both tribal citizens and tribes. [A trust agreement is a legal principle and document stating that the federal government is required to support tribal self-government, sovereignty, and economic prosperity.] Tribes have constitutions and ways of governing that are distinct for each tribe. These should be honored by U.S. and other North American governments and citizens.
Tribes decide who is and is not a tribal citizen, and we need to respect their decisions. The war against Native Americans is real, and tribal sovereignty is at the heart of it.
Native Raised Native people who are not enrolled in a tribe due to policies of blood quantum need to be carefully thought about.
LEARNING FROM A MISTAKE
I identify as Native Raised White and have been working on that identity since 2006. Marcie warmly “welcomed me home” and invited me to a Native Raised Other workshop. In that workshop, I sobbed. I felt like my entire existence suddenly made sense, like I finally had two legs to stand on. I felt protected, probably for the first time in Co-Counseling. (I had previously been targeted with unaware oppressor distress.)
That kind of experience happens for a lot of us who work on coming home to the Native identity. A reorganization happens in our minds. Our ability to think and act with integrity ignites. We may also feel a calmness, like we “know” where we belong.
Things can also get tricky [challenging]. Those of us with Native heritage who were raised in other identities often have a tremendous amount of distress about “not belonging.” This can influence how we think, counsel, live our lives, and interact with Native Raised Native people (and all people). When we bring up our “not belonging” feelings with Native Raised Native people, they can experience it as oppression.
There is a movement outside RC that addresses “pretendians” [people who falsely claim to be citizens of a Native American or Indigenous Canadian tribal nation or to be descended from Native ancestors]. I think many of those accused of being pretendians are Native Raised White people.
I have often made the mistake of claiming to be Lakota, even though I am not an enrolled member of the tribe and cannot find family members who are. It is more accurate for me to say that I’ve been told my whole life that my family is Lakota from the Lower Brule Reservation, and I’m doing coming-home work to understand my heritage and connection to being Lakota. I can also say that I am Native Raised White (Native Raised Native folks seem to be okay with that).
We who are Native Raised White need help from our allies to discharge our feelings of not belonging. Our allies need to respect us and give us lots of space to claim our Native heritage(s) and decide what they mean for ourselves and our families.
Sometimes our non-Native Co-Counselors treat our claiming of Native heritage as trivial. They seem pulled to shut us down, to treat us like we need to be “fixed,” and to “put us in our place.” The flip side of this is when they make assumptions about what our Native heritage is and means. For example, well-meaning Co-Counselors who are trying to contradict our hurts from genocide sometimes push us to claim our Native heritage in ways that do not honor tribal sovereignty.
CLAIMING OUR NATIVE HERITAGES
In RC we use the term “Native Raised Native” for people who have a connection to their tribal people, who were raised in their customs, who know their family lineage, and who often have tribal recognition. When they are enrolled tribal members, tribal leaders recognize them as theirs and as part of their jurisdiction. [The term jurisdiction is used to describe whether the states or the tribes rule over the activities of Indians and tribes in Indian country. It is generally understood that U.S. states have no jurisdiction over Indians and tribes in Indian country, but Public Law 280 created an exception to this in certain states.]
Genocide has caused many Native Americans to lose their connection to their tribe(s) and people. Many have no idea which tribe(s) they are descended from. In RC we encourage these people to do “coming home” work with each other and to be tracked by Marcie Rendon and other Native leaders. It is easy to go off course because of widespread patterns of not following Native leadership. We need to follow Marcie’s leadership. Otherwise we risk acting out oppressor and genocidal distress at the Native American community.
We Native Raised Other RCers can claim our Native heritage in Co-Counseling sessions. For most of us it will stay in sessions. But that doesn’t mean that outside of sessions we should retreat into whiteness or other identities we were raised in. Retreating into only our white, Black, Asian, or Latina/o identities is disrespectful of our Native ancestors and of Native liberation. Trivializing our Native heritage is also disrespectful of our ancestors. We need to discharge so we can talk about our Native heritage—without running [acting out] oppressor distresses related to belonging, not belonging, and appropriation.
Some of us may be enrolled citizens of our tribes, and some may not. Decisions about tribal membership rightfully remain with the tribe. Part of coming home is building relationships with our tribes. We get to make lots of friends. We get to back [support] Native liberation irrespective of our enrollment or how we identify.
BEING THOUGHTFUL WHEN WORKING ON CARE OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Those of us working on care of the environment need to be thoughtful about how we claim our Native heritage and treat Native-heritage people, especially Native Raised Native people. Many of us know nothing about Native treaty rights to land, water, hunting, fishing, and gathering. “Not knowing” is oppressive and can be horrifying to Native Raised Native people.
We also need to understand Native cultural values of connection to the land and the spirit world. When we don’t, and don’t acknowledge that lack of understanding, the Native community can experience it as violence.
The oppression of Native people is about permanently erasing Native tribes, Native people, and Native thinking. As a result, some Native people have patterns of hiding, trying to be invisible, and wanting to be “off the grid.” When we don’t understand and honor Native land rights and sovereignty, we participate in the oppression and genocide of Native Americans.
Once again, we must respect and support Native existence and leadership and honor tribal decisions about sovereignty. We must be vigilant about and discharge any distress patterns that erase Native thinking. And we must remember that Native people are alive—to talk to and be with!
EXPERIMENTING AND DISCHARGING
Lots of interesting experiments need to happen. We will make lots of mistakes as well as great gains. We are very much at the discharge, discharge, discharge phase in our ability to think about Native Americans.
Urbana, Illinois, USA
(Present Time 209, October 2022)