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Editorial: “DNA and the need to belong“

When American Indian identity is based on culture as much as blood, gene tests can tear tribes apart

BLASTED from arid, rocky land where rattlesnakes once thrived, the stands like a modern castle in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Saturday night and the car park is heaving with gleaming pick-ups lured from the small towns of central California.

Though business is booming, the casino has opened up wounds in the community of American Indians that built it on their land. The tribe has resorted to desperate measures to stem the deluge of claims from people hoping to be granted membership of the Chukchansi and consequently a share of the casino’s profits – which can amount to several thousand dollars per person each year. This month, they will vote on whether all new applicants should undergo a paternity test to prove they are related to who they say they are. Would-be members include many children and adolescents brought up within the tribe for whom a negative result could be devastating.

Membership disputes are nothing new in Indian country. The Chukchansi tribe has already expelled more than 500 members through non-genetic means. Earlier this month ex-members of the Chukchansi and several other tribes gathered at the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California, to protest against the culling of California tribes: “There are tribes across our country that have terminated a significant portion of their citizens. In California alone, nearly 2500 Indian people have been stripped of their tribal citizenship since the approval and expansion of Indian gaming, stripping them of the right to vote, representation for their allotted tribal lands and healthcare,” said a statement issued by the organisers of the protest.

Introducing genetics to solve enrolment disputes is a new twist in the drama. Regardless of the result of this month’s vote, Indian communities are turning to DNA testing more and more. “Since we started a casino a few years ago, all of a sudden we had Chukchansis coming out of the woodwork,” says Reggie Lewis, chairman of the Chukchansi tribe. “We thought DNA would be a way to make sure that we only get people who are qualified to be in the tribe in the tribe.”

“We thought DNA testing would make sure we only get qualified members in the tribe”

Those fighting expulsion suspect the proposed Chukchansi paternity test is an attempt to purge yet more members from the rolls. Some believe that DNA testing could create new problems for tribe members, such as false paternity issues. Others worry that if tribes base membership on genetics, the door might open for other racial groups to claim tribal authority based on DNA.

Currently, there are representing around 1.9 million people in the US. Each operates as a sovereign nation, with its own government and courts. The majority of tribes admit new members by setting a minimum “blood quantum”. For example, if your mother is ¼ tribe x and your father is ¼ tribe x, that makes you ¼ tribe x too. With tribal membership comes a cultural identity, educational grants, healthcare, housing and assistance with childcare.

That American Indian tribes have embraced DNA technology may seem surprising. “Culturally, it may seem a little weird that tribes are using DNA testing, but tribes are not immune to what goes on in the larger society,” says James Mills, founder of , which advises tribes on issues including membership.

The Chukchansi aren’t alone. Other tribes, such as the Ho-Chunk in Wisconsin and the Eastern Band of Cherokee in North Carolina, also require DNA tests for new members. To date, the only genetic tests tribes routinely use are those to confirm parentage. But tribes say they have been approached by people with no direct relative in the tribe wanting to enrol on the basis of ancestry tests that suggest American Indian heritage. The concept of finding such markers is highly controversial because no one has ever found genetic markers that can reliably distinguish between culturally defined races. Alex Sinelnikov of Genetica Laboratories in Cincinnati, Ohio, says such tests are not accurate enough to place an individual in a tribe with any degree of certainty. “It’s a fairy tale,” he says.

Those tribes already using DNA testing say it is perfectly reasonable to require proof that people are related to who they say they are. “DNA testing has helped to settle membership disputes and is a very scientific and clear-cut way to do so,” says Sheila Corbine, Attorney General for the in Wisconsin Dells. Potential problems can creep in, however, when existing members of a tribe are ordered to undergo paternity testing (see “Not Indian enough”).

At the Creating Stronger Nations conference in Las Vegas last month, the issue of DNA testing polarised opinion – particularly where retrospective testing was concerned. “We use DNA for new members, but we don’t go backwards,” says Janis Contraro of the Suquamish tribe in Washington. “If you start paternity testing [existing members] you open up a whole can of worms.”

The Chukchansi tribal council, which also attended the conference, disagrees. Since 2003, they have had a moratorium on new members after their numbers swelled from around 30 in the early 1980s, to more than 1000. A vote for DNA testing would involve amending their constitution so that all potential members would have to undergo a test – including children who have not been able to enrol since the moratorium. A paternity test typically costs $200 to $400 – no small sum for the many American Indians who live on or below the poverty line.

“We know that at first there will be an emotional issue between families,” says Jennifer Stanley, secretary for the Chukchansi tribe, “but in the end what we’re hoping through DNA is a unified tribe that actually knows who they are.”

Few members are willing to discuss the matter openly, though internet forums are providing one means for people to vent their concerns. Many say that DNA testing could undermine centuries of cultural values. Traditionally, culture and upbringing were often considered as important as blood ties, if not more so, and many tribes adopted non-Indians into their membership. One famous example is the Cherokee-Freedmen – former black slaves of Cherokee Indians.

“DNA testing undermines the notion of what it is to be tribal,” says of the University of California, Berkeley, who studies the impact of science on American Indians and is an enrolled member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribe in South Dakota.

Cathy Cory, who was expelled from the Chukchansi tribe in 2005, agrees. “Nothing within the Indian culture has ever been based on DNA. Many adopted people into the tribe that had no blood or DNA connection.”

TallBear also cautions that focusing too narrowly on DNA could ultimately undermine the very identities and sovereignty that tribal councils are seeking to protect. “As DNA testing occurs more frequently in Indian country, the legal and historical foundations of tribal sovereignty may fade from view.” She says anti-tribal interests may argue that tribal benefits are race-based rights rather than the result of historical treaties which could lead to the dissolution of tribes or to other racial groups trying to claim benefits. “Tribes have to create new traditions, but we should be mindful of the type of traditions and culture we are creating,” she says.