The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (MCT) recently held a non-binding vote on its enrollment requirements—a total of 7,470 members of the tribe participated in the vote, and the results showed that a majority (approximately 4,800) want to remove the long-standing blood quantum requirement, which holds that prospective members must show proof of blood relation in order to enroll in the tribe and receive services.
The MCT is a central organization with six individual tribes, or Bands, under its umbrella. A similar percentage of respondents also voted in favor of allowing individual bands to form their own membership requirements, according to the tribe.
Melanie Benjamin, chief executive of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, one of the bands under the MCT, said that “the outcome of this vote will not bind the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe’s Executive Committee to taking any particular action at this time.” Rather, the purpose of the vote was to “get an idea of the thoughts and opinions of MCT membership about enrollment.”
The MCT was ratified June 18, 1934, and comprises the Fond du Lac, Bois Forte, Grand Portage, Mille Lacs, Leech Lake and White Earth Bands of Ojibwe. Each band directly operates its reservation, and there are currently just under 41,000 total enrolled members.
Since 1934, the MCT’s enrollment requirements have changed multiple times, but in 1961 it adopted the following, which is still in place today: “All children of at least one quarter (1/4) degree Minnesota Chippewa Indian blood born after July 3, 1961, to a member, provided that an application for enrollment was or is filed with the Secretary of Tribal Delegates or the Tribal Executive Committee within one year after the date of birth of such children.”
The ¼ degree of Indian blood is the most common tribal enrollment requirement nationwide, but in most cases it has caused tribal membership to decline over the years.
“Being enrolled in a tribe is also about protecting land and resources, not to take them, and there are people who are looking to be enrolled to exploit those resources, ”said Lisa Bellanger, a citizen of the Leech Lake Band and co-chair of the American Indian Movement.
