BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Native American 2011 State of Indian Nations Address

State of Indian Nations

Click on the above link for the 2011 State of Indian Nations Address from NCAI.

Oh wow I have never heard Indian spoken except in films. WA SA EI ATI... does that mean hallo?

Are you an American Indian Phyllis? There seem to be a few of you on BellaOnline who speak about attending activities.

You have a Miss Indian Nations! Is that like an American Indian Beauty Pagent?

All these questions sorry!

"WA SA EI ATI... does that mean hallo?"

I am not sure of the spelling or which language that is, but I am sure it is a "Greetings and welcome" salutation.

I am not Native American. Sometimes I feel as if I am -- I am in spirit and heart anyway. My life is very full and rich with the ways of Native Americans. There are forum members here who are of Native American heritage, like lcp and Beetlemess and several others who visit us once in awhile.


About Miss Indian Nations:

The primary function of Miss Indian Nations will be to serve as an Ambassador for all Indian Nations as well as to serve as an official representative of United Tribes Technical College.

You can read more about Miss Indian Nations at the following link:
Miss Indian Nations

I love questions and feedback, so never hesitate to come here and ask, share, and join in on conversations.

Thank you for your interest, Linda.

Thank you Phyllis,

I looked at the Miss Indian Nations page, when it says...

"the Pageant is open to all Native American women who are at least one-fourth degree Indian"

... does that mean at least on grandparent has to be Indian?

I found what the current Miss Indian Nations - Evereta Thinn said fascinating...

" My clans are Folded with Arms people, born for the Salt people, my maternal grandfathers are the Bitterwater people and my paternal grandfathers are the Giant people of the Red Running into the Water."

What amazing names they have, Salt people and Bitterwater people.

Do these clans/tribes still exist today?

I sound so ignorant but I am afraid all I really know about Native American Indian people are what I used to see in the 'Cowboy and Indian' films that I watched as a child, and then the main character was always a 'white' man dress up as an 'indian'.

Thank you for the information Phyllis I love learning new things.

Peace and hugs

My Native American heritage is so far removed and diluted by the American melting pot .... tap water has more NA DNA than my veins, but as Phyllis stated - it's in the spirit and the heart.

President of the National Congress of American Indians, Jefferson Keel, is Chickasaw & I thought he'd have used that dialect in the speech - but Noooo

Linda, it is good to ask questions, for that is how we all learn.

""the Pageant is open to all Native American women who are at least one-fourth degree Indian"

... does that mean at least on grandparent has to be Indian?"

Yes, if one has at least one grandparent who is Native American, then they qualify for the pageant.

"" My clans are Folded with Arms people, born for the Salt people, my maternal grandfathers are the Bitterwater people and my paternal grandfathers are the Giant people of the Red Running into the Water."

Evereta Thinn introduced her heritage in the proper Dine' Navajo way. The maternal line is introduced first, then the paternal line. It means she was born from her mother of the Bitterwater people, for her father of the Giant people of the Red Running into the Water. The Navajo people are a matrilineal society.

"What amazing names they have, Salt people and Bitterwater people.

Do these clans/tribes still exist today?"

Descendants of these clans still exist today. We may know them by other names, but the people have given themselves their own names to distinquish between the many clans that came together as one Nation in the Navajo Tribes. For example, the Bitterwater people may have come from an area where the water was bitter. It is common for the clans to choose the area where the originated from as their name. There is one clan that came from an area where there was a huge rock that looked like it was sleeping, so they called themselves the "Sleeping Rock people". If I were to name my family line (clan) to distinguish them from other families in our relations (tribe), I would call us "the people of the farmlands", for we lived on farms since first coming to America. Few of us live on farms now, but our ancestors did and we still think of ourselves in that way and it tells where we came from.

I hope this helps to answer your questions.

I hope Phyllis doesn't mind me adding a little here. The differences in societal structure is something I love to explore and learn of. I'm of American Indian descent, but was raised "White," and the differences have been fairly significant on my life path.

On "blood" degrees, one has to realize we are the only ethnic group which must PROVE our bloodlines. I have a T-shirt which says "I'm part White, but I can't Prove it."

One fourth degree basically means your blood is at least 1/4 Native American. It could be 1 Grandparent is a full blooded American Indian, or 2 Grandparents are half/half. If you have a complete and documented family history, you could even add up 1/8, 1/16 and 1/32 to reach the one quarter required.

This belabored "blood" system began back when our federal government began to recognize Native Tribes with half-hearted attempts to honor a few of the things in treaties, that were otherwise ignored. And it's been a point of contention ever since. Now we have Federally recognized Tribes and State recognized Tribes, with different blood degree requirements.

I worked with my Tribe in pursuing State Recognition. At some point we had to decide whether to set a "blood degree" as a requirement of membership. Can you imagine being told by family members, "No, You don't have enough blood." Fortunately, we did have and chose the option to base our membership on family descent, not blood.

Now that I think about it, I could easily see an FBI (full blooded Indian) referring to my family as a bunch of "Thin Bloods." I'm poking fun at MY family with that.

As said before, it's really what's in your heart. So many in America are so thoroughly mixed racially. Any person whose family has been here for more than 150 years and moved around a bit would find some Indian blood in their family tree somewhere.

I used to joke "Red and Yellow, Black and White, I'm looking for the Yellow, I've found the rest." I can't do that anymore. My cousin adopted a beautiful baby girl from China. We found the Yellow. Adoption, now that's a legal way to "trump" blood degree, but opens up another situation and debate.

I prefer Black Elk's simplicity. We are the Rainbow People and all our blood is Red.

Very well said, lcp. Thank you so much. This really explains a lot of the issues of who is and who is not "recognized" as Native American. It has always astounded me that the first peoples on this continent have to prove their heritage.