Congress ends blood metric for Five Tribes
Oklahoma tribal leaders and congressmen applauded the swift passage last week of legislation ending blood quantum requirements they have long considered discriminatory.
Under a 1947 law known as the Stigler Act, members of the Five Tribes — Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Muskogee (Creeks) and Seminoles — could not inherit their family’s allotted land and keep it in restricted fee status if they became too far removed, by blood, from their tribal ancestors.
Instead, their interests could be sold, exchanged and even taxed if they were determined to have less than one-half degree of Indian blood, a highly controversial metric that only applied to the Five Tribes.
“Our families have a right to pass their lands onto their heirs and hold onto those historically significant family connections,” said Cherokee Principal Chief Bill John Baker in a statement Thursday. “For far too long, the blood quantum stipulation has tied up land titles and prevented families from keeping their inheritance.”
The U.S. House voted 399-0 on Thursday to end the blood quantum requirements, one week after the Senate did so unanimously. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the change into law.
“Without question and especially in Oklahoma, Native American heritage is something to be celebrated. But that special heritage must also be protected, preserved and passed on,” said Rep. Tom Cole, a Moore Republican and Chickasaw citizen who sponsored the bill.
Rep. Markwayne Mullin, a Westville Republican and Cherokee citizen, lives with his family on land his tribal ancestors settled on. Mullin cosponsored the bill, along with fellow Oklahoma Reps. Steve Russell, R-Choctaw, and Frank Lucas, R-Cheyenne.
“Land that is handed down from generation to generation in Native American families is a part of our culture,” Mullin said. “It is what allows families like mine to continually pass their family’s history on to the next generation.”
The Cherokee Nation says it lost 534 acres of land between 2011 and 2015 due to blood quantum requirements. The Five Tribes, who owned 15 million acres in the early 1900s, now have 381,000 acres in eastern Oklahoma.