The Non-Native Residency Issue

At the October and November 2012 monthly tribal meetings, the inaction by tribal chiefs on the non-native residency issue was brought up. Apparently, a 1986 tribal referendum resulted in a minimum 50% blood quantum rule for residency on the U.S. side of the reservation. Five years later tribal chiefs unilaterally decided to amend this rule to a minimum of 25% blood quantum for residency. After this, subsequent tribal chiefs quietly stopped enforcing any minimum blood quantum for residency. This has resulted in the number of resident non-natives gradually climbing each subsequent year. Many estimate the present number to be over several hundred. In discussing this issue with many elderly community members, many agree this issue would be difficult for present day tribal chiefs to deal with because as time goes by the non-natives become part of families. And forcing them off the reserve would no doubt become a “hot issue” for tribal chiefs, who may wish to protect their re-election prospects.

In years past, many say, if a family member decided to marry or start a relationship with a non-native, then it was understood they would move off the reserve to permanently live and perhaps start a family. Stricter families who continued to be influenced by parents and grandparents were, of course, prohibited from relationships with non-natives. Society, along with the Akwesasne Community, has evolved away from the family influence environment to the point where significant numbers of young people live on their own and start relationships without the knowledge of close family members. After the fact the extended family learns of the relationship.

A long-time observer of the membership issue who asked to remain anonymous stated, “A neutral way for the tribal chiefs to proceed with this issue would be to announce that as of a specific date, no new non-tribal members may move on the reserve. They can still move to evict non-member individuals who have no present family ties to tribal members.”

Victor Martin