After nearly two hours of impassioned debate, the Crow Tribe’s Legislature on Wednesday voted down a bill that would dramatically change the definition of tribal membership.
The bill, brought by Chairman Frank White Clay, would have revised the tribe’s “blood quantum” standard, effectively making more people eligible for tribal citizenship.
Blood quantum, a concept created by White settlers and rooted in assimilation tactics, refers to the fractional amount of tribal affiliation in an individual’s ancestry. The concept is central to individual identity and is also highly controversial.
Most tribes nationwide use a blood quantum calculation to determine eligibility for citizenship. Tribal enrollment, in turn, determines eligibility for certain health services, the ability to vote in tribal elections and whether a person can qualify for educational scholarships, among other rights and privileges. Tribal enrollment numbers can also influence federal funding for tribal programs.
With each new generation, it becomes harder for any tribe using blood quantum to maintain its membership as tribal members marry non-Natives or people from other tribes. The limitations of blood quantum as a qualifying standard for tribal membership, a California Law Review article contends, “threaten to jeopardize the existence of Native nations, as you cannot have a nation without citizens.”
While most tribes in Montana use blood quantum to determine citizenship, the Chippewa Cree and Northern Cheyenne tribes use a lineal descendency model in which membership is determined by a person’s ancestry. The Blackfeet and Fort Belknap Aaniiih and Nakoda tribes have also initiated community discussions about potentially changing enrollment requirements.
According to the Crow Tribe’s current enrollment policy, an individual must “possess one-quarter Crow Indian blood” to enroll as a member of the tribe. The proposed legislation would revise that policy so that all living current members would be considered to have 100% Crow “blood.” That would change the lives and membership status not just of more than 14,000 enrolled Crow tribal members, but thousands of descendants who would become more likely to qualify for tribal membership and the services that come with it.
THE BILL
The Crow Tribal Legislative Branch, one of three branches of tribal government, comprises 18 senators. Sitting at a table surrounded by members of the tribal Legislature on Wednesday afternoon, Chairman Frank White Clay and tribal attorney Majel Russell made their pitch for the bill.
Blood quantum, they said, became central to federal policy in the late 19th century. From 1887 to 1934, the federal government divided tribal land into allotments for distribution to individual tribal members, using blood quantum to determine eligibility, with the goal of assimilating Native Americans into White society through private property ownership. In assigning blood quantum values to individuals, federal agents made “significant errors,” said Russell. She called the practice “arbitrary,” citing instances where children of the same parents were assigned different blood quantum values.
Russell presented the legislation as “the most viable option” to address the issue in a timely manner. Other reforms, she said, would require a Constitutional referendum, a more burdensome political process.
The tribe has faced declining enrollment since 2023, the chairman and tribal attorney argued. Without a blood quantum revision in the coming decades, they said, the tribe could eventually cease to exist as a political entity. White Clay said the legislation would benefit young people whose parents are enrolled but who are not enrolled themselves.
“Everything about them is Crow,” he told the Legislature. “They live here. They work here. Their culture is here. But, just by a little bit, they’re not Crow. When we hold on to Blood quantum, our tribe has an expiration date.”
THE DISCUSSION
While some senators opposed the idea of revising blood quantum at all, others said the legislation didn’t go far enough and offered only a temporary fix.
Sen. Darwin Spotted Sr. voiced a popular counterargument: that more liberal enrollment requirements could result in more people vying for fewer resources in a federal system where resources are already scarce.
“Right now, we’re fighting for one big pot, all of us Native Americans in the U.S.,” he said. While the chairman and tribal attorney argued that federal funding is often calculated based on a tribe’s population, resulting in more resources based on higher membership, Spotted said he was skeptical, and added that the Trump administration is particularly unpredictable.
Sen. Dean Don’t Mix said that while he appreciated how the legislation would benefit the tribe, he worried that broader membership could make it more difficult in the future to revise the tribe’s Constitution, which requires support from a significant portion of the tribe’s citizens. He also expressed concern that the legislation was “passing the buck” to future generations to contend with the issue.
“I want to go back to the drawing board,” he said.
Sen. Jason Kills Pretty Enemy took issue with the alleged errors in enrollment information as described by Russell, arguing that before the tribe considers legislation to revise blood quantum, it should correct any inaccuracies in existing membership rolls.
“What are you guys going to do about those that were illegally enrolled?” he said.
Sen. Velma Pickett spoke in support of adopting a lineal descent policy, the type of membership determined by a person’s ancestry.
“This isn’t the only option,” she said of the proposed legislation. “This isn’t a step away from blood quantum, it only extends the expiration date.”
Sens. Lesley Kabotie, Josie Passes and Glenn Plenty Hawk were among the legislation’s most vocal supporters.
Kabotie criticized lawmakers’ opposing arguments as being rooted in fear. Supporting the blood quantum revision, she said, exercised the tribe’s sovereignty and helped ensure the tribe’s future.
“Blood quantum is not a legitimate deciding factor of whether Apsaalooké people walk the face of this Earth or not,” she said. “Our decision is to decide that as long as the grass grows, the rivers flow, there shall be recognized, enrolled members of the Apsaalooké Nation that America and everybody else will have to deal with. We need to assure that.”
Passes similarly characterized opposing arguments as “fear-based” and urged the Legislature to consider the community’s children.
“We have several little Indian kids running around this reservation who are enrolled in other tribes, who live here, who are Crow, who dance traditional, who speak the language, who sing,” she said. “That’s their identity, but on paper, they’re not enough. They are one tick mark away, two tick marks away. We’re telling them that they are not Crow and we are not considering them.”
The legislation, she said, sends a message to young people that “you matter. You’re Crow. I see you, and you count.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
After almost two hours of debate, the Legislature voted the bill down on a 10-7 vote.
Several lawmakers said that while the bill is dead, the debate about blood quantum isn’t over. The chairman could bring another piece of legislation for the body to consider or issue an executive order revising blood quantum. The tribe can also change its membership requirements via constitutional referendum.
Standing in the chamber after the vote, Chairman White Clay echoed the sentiment that some senators voted out of fear.
“I just believe that they’re scared of change,” he said. “They fear these new things. Maybe the next generation won’t.”
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This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.