CROW AGENCY — According to Crow Tribal leaders, membership numbers are dwindling.
For the first time, the population is shrinking. This year, more Crow enrolled people died than the number of new enrollees.
Now the Crow Tribal Executive Branch is acting fast, drafting a solution to increase the number of Crow members.
Hear reactions from Crow Tribal members about the proposed legislation below:
Under the proposed legislation, any member enrolled in the Crow Tribe will be considered 100% full-blooded Crow, even if they only have a 25% blood quantum. This would allow the children of some tribal members, who were previously not allowed, to become enrolled.
Blood quantum has been a topic of conversation and controversy since the 1880s. In those days, the U.S. government needed ways to count native populations and imposed a method, known as blood quantum, that determined tribal eligibility based on family lineage.
"The only ones who have to be papered are dogs, horses, and Indians... Blood quantum was something that was forced against Indian tribes to adhere to, as to keep tabs on us, so to speak," said Levi Black Eagle, the Crow Tribe Executive Branch secretary.
The Crow Tribe Constitution and bylaws state that all people who possess one-quarter Crow Indian blood shall be an enrolled member. That means if one grandparent is 100 percent Crow blood, the grandchild is eligible for enrollment.
"If you're enrolled today and you're alive, you're a four-out-of-four," Black Eagle said. "That is the Crow legislation. We can't change the one-fourth requirement, 'cuz that's actually in our constitution."
Crow tribal members had mixed feelings about how the proposal would affect them.
As a Crow woman, Amber Birdinground holds her family traditions close to home.
"I come from Chief Medicine Crow lineage. That's where I come from on my mother's side," she said.
Birdinground was born and raised in Crow Agency. She now teaches community health, math, science, and PreMed at Little Big Horn College. Birdinground believes that family traditions, cultural values and one's upbringing are more important than blood quantum.
"I was raised in a traditional home," she said. "My first language is Crow."
Birdinground is seven-eighths Crow. That lineage dates back to the Dawes Act in 1887, which provided the allotment of land to Indigenous reservations. According to Black Eagle, when this act went into effect, all current Crow members were categorized by 100% blood quantum.
"It's something that for no other reason, we have to know," Black Eagle said. "You wouldn't go to someone of Italian descent and say how much Italian are you, and expect them to spit out a number, right? But for some other reason, tribal members have to deal with that."
Black Eagle said the current gate-keeping system to be considered an enrolled Crow member is flawed. That's why the Crow Executive Branch is working on a way to get away from it.
"We do have a lot of Tribal members who are, by definition, are what you consider a member. They're tribal members. Their parents are Crow. Their family's Crow. Their last name is Crow. They live here. They partake in our culture and traditions... but legally, they aren't allowed to be enrolled. That's pretty sad."
Along with this proposed change comes many questions from the people it'll impact most: Crow Tribal members.
"How is this going to affect the future of our people? How is it for generations to come?" Birdinground said.
"How are they going to identify themselves as an enrolled Crow member? Can anyone just say, 'I'm a Crow member and be enrolled?'" Crow Tribal member Audrey Plenty Hoops said.
Those in support of the proposal believe the increase in membership means that more Crow Natives will be around to keep the traditions alive.
"We have our clan system. We have our language. We have people we go to for guidance," said Birdinground.
Others say they worry about the long-term impacts of more enrolled members. For instance, enrolling more people as Crow could mean less access to money and services. Tribal benefits, such as care at the Indian Health Service, the right to vote, the right to inherit trust land, and per capita income will be spread among more people.
"So, I think the population is gonna really grow and will expand," Plenty Hoops said. "And if it does, our revenue and our per capita will decrease."
A tribal elder, who is just over half Crow-blood, Audrey Plenty Hoops is concerned about those resources thinning. Per capita is a regular payment to all tribal members divided equally.
"A lot of our community, people are not employed," Plenty Hoops said. "They have no income coming in besides their per capita."
The idea of a blood quantum is something Crow officials say they're working towards getting past. According to Black Eagle, amending the Crow Tribal Constitution and bylaws is tedious and time-consuming. So for now, a temporary solution is better than no action at all.
"It doesn't fix it," he said. "As long as we still adhere to blood quantum, this is always going to be a problem. This actually allows us to put in a more concrete plan of how to battle this."
The executive branch has already submitted the proposal. In January, the legislative branch will meet in committee to review the document and make amendments to the proposal.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist, and portions of this article have been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
