It was a simple follow-up question, a final fact check to an already finished story. Marie Crabb, who identifies as Mescalero Apache, is running for city council in San Antonio, and appeared to be part of a wave of Indigenous women running for public office. In my capacity as an Indigenous Affairs reporter, I wanted to write about her historic run.
My question to her: “Would you call yourself a citizen or member of Mescalero Apache?” People across Indian Country differ on how they prefer to be identified: tribal member, tribal citizen, the responses always vary. Her answer, and subsequent answers, however, changed the entire story. She was not enrolled in the Mescalero Apache tribe, which prompted another question: Why not?
Being unenrolled isn’t necessarily a cause for concern as Indigenous identity is complex. Many Indigenous people grow up displaced from their communities at no fault of their own, and the reasons are many: genocide, assimilation, and termination policies enacted by the United States against Indigenous tribes and nations have cut off many families and individuals from their communities. According to the Association on American Indian Affairs, some 300 Indigenous tribes and nations are unrecognized by state or federal governments, and in some cases, people have been disenrolled from their tribes due to political or financial reasons. In other situations, blood quantum laws based on how much “Indian blood” one has have also pushed Indigenous people out of their communities. Then there are those who come from families forced to move to cities, or who have endured horrific adoption programs, or even come from families who left their communities and never wanted to return for whatever reason. This era of history in Indian Country is often colored by attempts to extirpate Indigenous peoples through policy or outright violence.
