Today Gabe Galanda delivered a lecture titled,“Indigeneity Crisis: Language and Law" at his alma mater, the University of Arizona College of Law.
Gabe reprised a recent lecture he gave at Harvard University, explaining the legal transmutation of Indigenous kinship societies and members into “tribes,” “Indians,” “nations,” and “citizens” and how it contributes to identity crises for a great many Indigenous nations today.
He explained how numerous Indigenous nations:
No longer include or enroll their babies or children as citizens;
Disenroll elders, matriarchs, youth, and families through neo-colonial political processes;
Dishonor and disturb, even exhume and DNA test, ancestors for the sake of disenrollment;
Discriminate based on racial shades of “Indian blood” and fictional blood quantum percentages derived from debunked European inheritance and Eugenics theory; and
Calculate tribal citizenship based on how much money is received—or could be received—in gaming “per capita” distributions.
Gabe urged that traditional Indigenous kinship principles be infused into modern Indigenous nationhood citizenship laws and practices, including constitutions and membership ordinances.
Gabriel S. Galanda is the Managing Lawyer of Galanda Broadman, PLLC, an Indigenous rights law firm. He belongs to the Round Valley Indian Tribes, descending from the Nomlaki and Concow Peoples.
