Yesterday at the DCI National Tribal Enrollment Conference, several tribal enrollment department staff members told us about individuals attempting to apply for tribal membership using genetic ancestry test results as documentary proof of their right to be enrolled. In my forthcoming book I speculate that this phenomenon might arise. It is here. There are two widespread educational deficiencies that lead to this problem: 1) the lack of understanding of genetics by most people; and 2) the equal dearth of knowledge by most people of the particularities of U.S. tribal sovereignty, 20th century tribal migratory history, and tribal rights to determine their own enrollment or citizenship criteria. Until these gaps are addressed, tribes will continue to be approached by individuals with genetic ancestry test results in hand. In responding to such requests and applications, and perhaps in revising enrollment ordinances to expressly address ancestry tests, there are resources out there that might be of use. First of all, tribal enrollment officers will want to get a basic handle on the genetics at play in genetic ancestry testing. It will then be clear how  the forms of biological relatedness documented by genetic ancestry mtDNA, Y-chromosome, and autosomal analyses are not the same forms of biological relatedness with which tribal enrollment offices are concerned. Genetic ancestry test findings are simply incommensurable with the biological relationships that tribes care about, i.e. documenting an applicant's close biological relationship to an individual who is/was already on the tribal rolls, or to individuals who were on the tribe's "base rolls." (As such, tribes increasingly use DNA parentage tests in concert with other documentation.) But genetic ancestry tests document the fact that a test taker is descended from unnamed "founding ancestors" who first settled the Americas. Such genetic information is interesting, but ultimately irrelevant from a tribal enrollment point of view.

See Bolnick et al's The Science and Business of Genetic Ancestry Testing for a bit on the science and its limitations generally.

See Royal et al's Inferring Genetic Ancestry: Opportunities, Challenges, and Implications for more background on genetic ancestry testing companies.

See my chapter, DNA and Native American Identity, published last year in a National Museum of the American Indian Anthology, indivisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas, ed. Gabrielle Tayac. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 2009.

Went to a fascinating morning session here in Albuquerque @ DCI America's National Tribal Enrollment Conference. It occurred to me that many of the tribal enrollment directors and staff in the session would benefit (if they feel like slogging through it) Kirsty Gover's "Genealogy as Continuity: Explaining the Growing Tribal Preference for Descent Rules in Membership Governance in the United States" (American Indian Law Review 33(243) 2008, accessible through JSTOR data base, maybe your tribal college has access?) Gover's is a rigorous study of 322 current & historical tribal constitutions. She examines tribal blood rules, how they changed during the 20th century, and how they continue to change today. She argues that contrary to popular (academic) belief, tribes are pushing back against older concepts of Federal "Indian blood" and becoming more "genealogical" as they privilege "tribal blood" rules. Tribal blood rules, she notes, are ways of counting ancestors and are more complex than simple reference to old race categories. (I've claimed this before too, i.e. blood quantum as counting relatives but NEVER with Gover's documentation of the practice.) Love this article. In short, Gover argues that tribes reconfigure their blood rules in order to "repair continuity during shifts in federal Indian policy and tribal demography," after the upheavals especially of Termination and Indian Self-determination policies post-WWII. Those of you who work in tribal enrollment departments spend so much time thinking about the minutiae of blood rules anyway, it's well worth your time. Off to give my own talk now, "DNA and Constituting a Tribe."

(Update: forgot to mention the very decent cappuccinos at the Hard Rock resort coffee bar, Chill. Native baristas working expertly and efficiently. I'm in cultural hybridity heaven.)

(2nd update:) Kirsty Gover sends news: "Folks interested in a comparative study of tribal membership rules - covering Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the US, might want to keep an eye out for my book, due on December 9, 2010 with Oxford University Press: Tribal Constitutionalism: States, Tribes and the Governance of Membership."

OAK to ABQ: Flying to Albuquerque this afternoon to speak tomorrow at DCI America's Annual Tribal Enrollment Conference about the perils and opportunities in DNA testing as part of tribal enrollment. First time ever attending a meeting at a Hard Rock Hotel. Not a typical venue for an academic. Not sure I'm cool enough to hang there. But it promises to be a very interesting meeting and I'm looking forward to hearing about how tribal enrollment directors are managing DNA testing.

This is a big change of venue from last week where I had the privilege of speaking to Chris Coggin's and Katie Boswell's Proseminar students at Bard College at Simon's Rock about ethics in genome research on indigenous peoples. They were a delightful group of undergraduates--so smart, engaged, and not cynical. They gave me great peer review as well, nailing me but productively on my imprecise use of "ethics" in my talk. Plus Great Barrington, Mass. is just a stunning location. And has great coffee. Check out Fuel.

Go to http://go.illinois.edu/SINGworkshop to sign up for the mailing list. Applications open in January. Scholarships will be available. There will be both scientific instruction as well as advising in social and ethical implications of genome research.