Tribe Hopes Lawmakers Will Kill Recognition Bill

An American Indian tribe is protesting a bill that would grant recognition to certain other groups in the state. They say those groups aren’t legitimate tribes, and worry they’ll have to compete for already scarce federal dollars.

The bill would recognize the Remnant Yuchi Nation. But representatives of the federally recognized Yuchi Tribe of Oklahoma argue the Tennessee remnant group lacks the history of a documented bloodline or functional tribal government.

Anthropology Professor Richard Grounds, a Yuchi from Oklahoma, says tribes must compete to get funding for programs like language preservation.

“If we begin to multiply all of the entities that can apply for these funds, then it means that legitimate communities, that have a direct history, a direct line of descent, who have been functioning with their ceremonies, with their languages since time immemorial, then may be shunted aside.”

Grounds argues state lawmakers are meddling in what should be a federal matter.

But House Sponsor Jason Mumpower calls his bill’s critics selfish and petty, at the expense of others’ rights.

The House is scheduled to vote on the bill next week.

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Professor Grounds says he bears no animosity toward the other groups, but beyond the economic issue, there is one of identity:

Dr. Richard Grounds and Joyce Bear

“If you have not grown up suffering the kind of discrimination that our beautiful indigenous people have faced throughout their lifetimes – We have a Yuchi elder who tells me that she fought every day in school because she was Indian. And I think she literally probably did; every day there was a physical challenge.
“So there’s an identity issue, that people that have this heritage as their immediate heritage, their lived heritage, it’s written on their faces, it’s something that they carry with them. They cannot undo it, they can’t pass, they can’t pretend.”

Grounds says that background can foster resentment toward “the born-again Indians who have the idea that being a tribal member is perhaps a club membership.”