Anthro 321
Dr. Bowser
06/25/2017
Essay 3: Ancestry in a Drop of Blood
As a 22-year-old living in the United States, I have always known DNA testing to be an
accurate way of telling a person who they are. I’ve never known a time without DNA testing and
have constantly heard about it on the news and the internet. More recently, I learned that one can
even pay for their own DNA test online, and will be sent a saliva swab kit, where you can use it
and send it back to get results. In the Native American world, DNA testing has become much
more prominent in identifying who is truly a descendent and who is not. Karen Kaplan (2005)
discusses this in an article from the Los Angeles Times, stating that tribes across the country
have begun using this testing for tribal membership.
Many more people have been interested in tribal membership in recent years due to the
expansion of Indian casinos and the payouts tribes make to their members. Blood quantum,
according to the Native American Online website (2004), are laws that were established that
place a minimum amount of ancestry required by blood that one has to be, to be considered a
member of a tribe. Kaplan describes an influx in the rate of membership applications tribes have
been receiving. The issue, however, is when the results from the DNA test don’t align with the
truth.
Kaplan writes about a woman named Marilyn Vann who has dozens of documents
reflecting her parents and ancestor’s Cherokee roots, yet her application for membership has
been denied due to the much larger amount of African descent she has, with only 3% tying to
Native American. The issue was with her father being listed on a 1907 tribal role as Freedmen,
Dr. Bowser
06/25/2017
Essay 3: Ancestry in a Drop of Blood
As a 22-year-old living in the United States, I have always known DNA testing to be an
accurate way of telling a person who they are. I’ve never known a time without DNA testing and
have constantly heard about it on the news and the internet. More recently, I learned that one can
even pay for their own DNA test online, and will be sent a saliva swab kit, where you can use it
and send it back to get results. In the Native American world, DNA testing has become much
more prominent in identifying who is truly a descendent and who is not. Karen Kaplan (2005)
discusses this in an article from the Los Angeles Times, stating that tribes across the country
have begun using this testing for tribal membership.
Many more people have been interested in tribal membership in recent years due to the
expansion of Indian casinos and the payouts tribes make to their members. Blood quantum,
according to the Native American Online website (2004), are laws that were established that
place a minimum amount of ancestry required by blood that one has to be, to be considered a
member of a tribe. Kaplan describes an influx in the rate of membership applications tribes have
been receiving. The issue, however, is when the results from the DNA test don’t align with the
truth.
Kaplan writes about a woman named Marilyn Vann who has dozens of documents
reflecting her parents and ancestor’s Cherokee roots, yet her application for membership has
been denied due to the much larger amount of African descent she has, with only 3% tying to
Native American. The issue was with her father being listed on a 1907 tribal role as Freedmen,
