People Are Losing Tribal Citizenship Over Money

Añadido: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Don't fall for the hype. They getting money out that casino. And guess what?

[00:00:04]If you're a citizen of a tribe that has a casino, you getting cashed out. The Cherokee people get $70,000 per month just just off rip. You ain't got to work for it. You ain't got to nothing. 7,000 in your bank account direct deposit every month. So, if you're part of a tribe that has a casino, oh, imagine the infighting. Imagine the the Game of Thrones type power struggles when there's only so much money to go around.

[00:00:30]But those who no longer belong to a tribe can lose access to tribal resources like healthcare, education grants, and housing.

[00:00:39]Nooksack is one of the 573 federally recognized tribes who operates as a sovereign nation. The federal government has little power to meddle in internal affairs like disenrollment. And for Santana Rabang, what stings the most is the feeling of being stripped of her identity. It's a direct attack on who I am. Technically, on paper, I'm not a native. Santana Rabang and her grandfather, Robert Rabang, were also disenrolled. Santana now lives in Lummi, the tribe where her mother is from. But she's not a member of Lummi, either, because she doesn't meet blood quantum requirements there. Blood quantum was imposed by the US government in the early 1900s as a means to define and limit citizenship within Indian tribes.

[00:01:26]It's still being used today to measure the amount of tribal blood in a person's ancestry.

[00:01:31]>> Blood quantum isn't how we identify as indigenous. It's my connection to the land and the knowledge that I carry.

[00:01:39]It's not the amount of blood that I have in me.

[00:01:43]It's the fact that it's there.

[00:01:45]>> Yeah, facts. Now they see how we feel.

[00:01:47]That's right. That's right. Come on.

[00:01:49]Come on. But the greedy tribes with the casinos, they want to say, "Oh, you don't have enough Indian blood. Oh, you may have heritage. you may have ancestors that are part of the tribe, but you don't have enough Indian blood.

[00:02:02]That's just a way that they adopt that colonizer mindset.

[00:02:07]Yes, my consultation with Mike TV was was on point. He was very thorough.

[00:02:14]He was very sincere and he really knows what he's talking about and he knows history and I do feel comfortable that I met him and that I was able to do this consultation.