Since the passage of this bill, any Native wanting to sell his wares at Federal, State or County sanctioned and/or subsidized pow wows, museums, Indian markets and the like, had to "prove" that he was an "authentic Indian" before he was allowed to participate. "Prove" by whose standards? Why, the white man's, of course.
In order to establish Native blood, it was now necessary to register with the good old BIA, get a registration card and number, and be forever folded, stapled, mutilated and categorized. The great majority have refused to succumb to this rule, recognizing it for what it is. Many, many more have tried to obey this law and register, only to be refused. Let us examine the history of this form of tyranny.
Registration was absolutely essential in order to obtain food, clothing, housing, and the essentials of life when the reservation system was first established. It was also the ONLY way to have your tribal and family name appear on the powerful "rolls" that were created to control the fate of all future generations of Natives. Fear, intimidation and starvation were only a few of the methods used to coerce the Native peoples into the registration plan. The majority of those who attempted to register were denied this "honor." Let us look at why.
First of all, your tribe had to be RECOGNIZED by the U.S. Government. There are thousands of tribes across the United States that have never been recognized by the U.S. Government for as many reasons as can be imagined and manufactured. The struggle for tribal recognition has gone on for generations; primarily for the protection of land and resources. Does this mean that these tribes who fail to be recognized are not authentic Natives? Hardly. Yet their very existence has been denied, and continues to be denied by the very authority who has lied to, cheated and stolen from the Native American since he landed on our shores.
Second, even if your tribe was a recognized one, you had to PROVE your lineage. Consider the obstacles here. It was not a usual and normal custom for Natives to keep written records of tribal activities, births and deaths. The records were kept in songs and drawings and beadwork, and in countless other artistic accounts of a family's history. Most importantly of all, the tribal records and history were in the memories and stories of the elders. Very little of these records and histories remained after the wholesale burning and ransacking of villages, and the calculated slaughter of the people. Remember, "the only good Indian is a dead Indian." Many bounty hunters lived very well off the number of scalps they turned in for payment when they cleaned up what had been missed by the U.S. military. They received $100 for a man's scalp, $50 for a woman's, and $25 for a child's. The bounty was even higher when the California Gold Rush was at its peak.
So, your ancestors survived the massacres and lived to be herded onto reservations. Those who survived the trips to their holding pens, and who did not get lost or separated from their particular group, or who did not manage to escape, were lined up for a head count. Many of the census takers hired by the government for this job were barely literate. Very few to none understood the various tribal languages, and very few to none of the Natives understood English. To solve this problem, a new measuring stick evolved. Now, you had to LOOK Indian to the eye of that man with the pencil.
Looking Indian proved to be the final blow to many tribes of the East coast. In the early days following European and Spanish contact, there was much peaceful co-existence, especially among traders, map makers and friendly whites. As children were born of these unions between the races, paler skin, light eyes and lighter hair began to emerge. The same held true once black slaves were brought to the East, especially the Southeast. From this merging of the races came the more African physical characteristics, darker skin, and curly hair.
Like genetic hopscotch, it was not uncommon for the same family to have several shades of skin, eyes and hair. As families stood before the census taker, ONLY THOSE WITH THE "PROPER" SHADE OF RED SKIN, BLACK STRAIGHT HAIR, AND BLACK EYES WERE REGISTERED. The light people were marked "white", or "half-breed white", and sent away as "Indian lovers." The darker people were marked "free colored," and sent away. Many who survived this elimination process were given white names because their true names were too difficult to understand and impossible to spell. With the scraggly strokes of a few chewed up pencils, 50,000 years of genealogy were erased forever. Does this mean that the Natives who did not survive this final cut and were sent away were no longer "Indian?" To the U.S. Government, YES; that's exactly what it meant.
A perfect example of this is the Lumbee people of tidewater North Carolina and Virginia. It has been established by reputable historians that the Lumbee came to the rescue of the "Lost Colony" who was, in fact, never lost at all. The tribe cared for the English, taught them to survive in this land, taught them Native ways, took them into their villages and married them. The English taught the Natives their language, their religion, how to use fabric, how to use metal utensils and tools, how to farm in the European manner, how to use guns, etc. Can you see the problem developing here?
Following the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the census takers were determined to track down all Indians. The Lumbees believe, as do many other tribes, that it is not skin color that identifies one as Indian, but rather a belief system, a state of mind, the impact of the culture, and the heart of the individual which separates the Red man from the White man.
In an attempt to be recognized and registered, 209 Lumbee presented themselves for processing. The black haired, black eyed, medium tan family members were accepted. Members of the same family with fair skin, blue eyes and blond hair were rejected because they did not "look Indian". Of the 209 inspected, only 22 were accepted for registration. I would encourage you to read "The Only Land I Know; A History of the Lumbee Indians", Adolph L. Dial and David K. Eliades, The Indian Historian Press, 1975.
Understandably, great inter- and intra-tribal tensions and hostilities have developed over the years because of this method of registration and proof. These tensions and hostilities continue today. Untold numbers of defiant full bloods, and all manner of mixed bloods, refuse to be registered, or otherwise succumb to the white man's rule. As the Native peoples have become increasingly educated in white schools, have learned white ways, and have become attorneys, senators, educators and professionals at all levels of society, the registration system is finally recognized for what it was, and is. Merely another form of discrimination - another very clever way to divide and conquer. Those who bear registration numbers are looked scornfully upon as "BIA Indians", "hang-around-the-fort-Indians", "apples", and other terms of ridicule indicating one who has sold out his own heritage for the white man's laws, his money and his hand-outs. It has been said that there are 1,000,000 "documented" Indians in the United States today. I would venture to say that, if all stood up to be counted, the number would easily be ten times that.
The rebellion is strong - and growing. Considering the white man's behavior on this continent, and his history of deceit, chicanery and greed, perhaps it is time for a well educated, cautious and effective rebellion against the continuing repression and oppression. At long last, there are outspoken and active champions for the un-real and the un-red. They have taken the form of humanitarians, anthropologists and historians who are valiantly trying to fight through the mystery and misinformation of the past in order to reweave the web of a noble people who are absolutely un-dead.