wfn.org | Caucus committee to develop policy on Native American

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identification

Dec. 15, 1998     Contact: Linda Green((615)742-5470(Nashville, Tenn.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) --  As the Native American population continues
to grow - along with interest in Indian culture and history - a
committee has begun the difficult task of determining who is an Indian
in the United Methodist Church.

The by-laws committee of the Native American International Caucus (NAIC)
met here Dec. 11-12 to begin work on  a response to a resolution adopted
by the 1992 and 1996 General Conferences.  The top legislative bodies of
the church called for the establishment of a policy of defining Native
Americans in the United Methodist Church to ensure that Native Americans
are identified, selected and placed on pertinent churchwide boards and
committees. NAIC is a caucus that holds Native American concerns and
issues before the church.

The work of the eight-member by-laws committee is important because of
issues in the church such as the need to identify people applying for
scholarships available exclusively to Native Americans. Some committee
members expressed fear that the  2000 U.S. Census will bring an
unprecedented influx of people calling themselves Native Americans. 

"Our numbers will quadruple and everyone and their brother will be
claiming they are Native American," said the Rev. Kenneth Locklear, a
Lumbee Indian from Greensboro, N.C., who is a member of the NAIC and the
newly-elected director of the church's Southeastern Jurisdictional
Agency for Native American Ministries (SEJANAM).

Locklear expressed alarm that some individuals are claiming to be Native
American just because they are born in America. 

Native Americans are being compelled by the United Methodist Church to
provide clarity in determining who is a Native American in a changing
society, explained Gary Metoxen, a member of the Oneida tribe from
Oneida, Wis., who is chairman of the committee.

"We are not going to define a Native American," he exclaimed.  "We are
going to recommend a policy for verification of Native American
identification in the United Methodist Church."  There are more than 500
federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States, he
said. 

Metoxen stressed that Native people must determine and define their own
identity.  "We do not want Anglos or other non-Native people telling us
who we are. We need to determine that." A policy will be recommended to
NAIC members meeting in September.

According to the Rev. Alvin Deer, executive director of the NAIC,
dealing with Native American identification at this time is a high
priority because of the ramifications it will have in regard to Native
American membership in the United Methodist Church. Deer, a Kiowa/Creek
Indian, predicts that the number of Native Americans counted in the 2000
U.S. Census will increase by 50 percent or more because the tabulations
allow for self-identification.

A policy for the United Methodist Church, he said, will ensure that a
Native American voice will be heard  throughout the denomination.

The issue of Native American identification is popping up throughout the
country. In Tennessee, where the committee meeting was held, a hot
debate is underway between the state and people who desire recognition
as a Native Americans.

For more than a year, a battle has ensued over state recognition of an
individual's American Indian blood. A group of people who have Native
Americans among their genealogy want the Tennessee Commission on Indian
Affairs to recognize their kinship and give them official status as
American Indians. American Indians recognized by Tennessee are given
minority status and often qualify for minority scholarships, minority
small-business loans and the ability to sell arts and crafts as a Native
American.

Across the United States, there are millions of people with Indian
ancestry but that does not make them American Indian in the eyes of
tribes or the federal government, according to 100 Questions, 500
Nations, a reporter's guide to Native America.  

The federal government considers someone an American Indian if that
person holds membership in a federally recognized tribe. Individual
tribes determine their own memberships, the resource says.  Tribal
governments formally list their members who must meet specific
requirements for enrollment, such as tracing tribal lineage and or proof
of descent.

In 1997, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that 12,005 people in
Tennessee identified themselves as American Indian but only a portion of
them have been recognized by the Commission. The census bureau estimates
that that by 2050, the Native American population in the United States
will reach. 4.4 million.

According to Ray Buckley, director of the Native American Communications
Office at United Methodist Communications, native people within and
outside the United Methodist Church have been using census status to
their advantage for numerous years. He said in the church the census is
used "to show that our numbers are growing." 

"There are thousands of Native Americans disbursed across the country
but in the United Methodist Church there are not many," said the Rev.
Steve Shewmake, a Northern Cherokee Indian from Soldier, Kans. "It is a
small town atmosphere among us in the church," he said. There are about
17,500  Native Americans currently in the United Methodist Church.

What do Native people have to fear from the upcoming 2000 Census? 

"Not as much as the NAIC believes," according to Buckley, who is a
Lakota/Tlingit Indian.  The rash of people who may or may not identify
themselves as "native" will not be granted tribal membership,
recognition by the Bureau of Indian Affairs or access to Indian Health
Services, he noted.  They also will not be entitled to benefits or
affirmative action programs, he said. 

The danger from the census is of inaccurate statistics, he said,
because the plans and programs which utilize them for appropriations
could be eliminated or underfunded. "This is serious, but it does not
affect the representation of Native people in the United Methodist
Church," he said.

Buckley said the reality is that Native identity in the United Methodist
Church is an issue which has been emerging for quite some time. He said
annual conferences spend money on "Native American ministries" which are
sometimes nothing more than gatherings for "persons to play Indian." He
said some people who have been appointed as Native American
representatives on churchwide boards and agencies, "have recently
discovered a Native heritage, and in no way reflect the thinking of
Native people."

He said those recent discoveries, "are tiring and disappointing to
Native people who are perhaps, the most marginalized of our society and
our church."

Because of the discoveries, "the response of the NAIC is a message to
the church that says, 'Let us define who we are,'" he noted. 

Vera Sonneck, a member of the Nez Perce tribe in Lapwai, Idaho, said the
rights as Native people are being jeopardized by people claiming to be
Native American. If the people who call themselves Indian want to be
Indian they must "live like an Indian and talk like an Indian," she
said.

Buckley had words of caution for the NAIC investigation.  "There is
danger that  scrutinizing the 'Indian-ness' of church members may become
more of a passion and obsession than sharing the love of God,"  he
warned.  "In reality, the people we might attempt to eliminate are
significantly smaller than those who could potentially be hurt."  The
focus, he emphasizes, must be on ministry.  "It is a horrific to think
of us sitting in empty churches clutching our census and Indian cards."
# # #

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