Minnesota Chippewa Tribe Constitutional Reform Update
By Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin and Secretary-Treasurer Sheldon Boyd
On Tuesday, June 22, the Tribal Executive Committee (TEC) of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (MCT) met at Fortune Bay for a special meeting regarding the constitutional reform process that has been on-going. The Mille Lacs Band is one of six sovereign tribal nations that share a constitution under the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. The MCT is an organization that was created in 1936.
Band member delegates from each Band have been meeting together for approximately three years to examine the MCT Constitution and discuss whether changes should be recommended to update the Constitution. Our Mille Lacs Band delegates are Band members who applied to be delegates in 2018 and include Band members from District I, II, IIa, III, and the urban area.
At the June 22 TEC meeting, the topic of MCT enrollment was discussed with the TEC by some of the delegates. The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe Constitution currently requires that for a person to be eligible for enrollment, the combined blood quantum from both parents must meet a minimum of 25 percent MCT blood. Blood quantum is not a system invented by Indian people. It was forced upon tribes in the 1930s by federal attorneys who wrote many tribal constitutions. At that time, the federal government viewed blood quantum as a strategy that would gradually decrease tribal enrollment numbers and eventually make tribal membership non-existent.
At the June 22 meeting, TEC members were asked by some delegates to support a resolution to immediately get rid of the 25 percent blood quantum, but other delegates felt they had not been consulted about this resolution and more research was needed, including our Mille Lacs Band member delegates. Instead of voting to support a specific immediate change to enrollment, the TEC voted to hold a referendum election to get an idea of what MCT membership wants to see happen. A referendum is when voters are asked to answer a single question about a certain topic. The question that the TEC agreed to ask voters is whether MCT members think each of the six Bands should be allowed to independently decide, as sovereign nations, what criteria should be used for enrollment in their particular Band.
This means that there will be an election at some point in the future where you as a Band member will be asked if you think that a secretarial election should be held to allow Mille Lacs Band members to choose our own enrollment criteria for our Band, instead of being required to follow the 25 percent MCT blood quantum criteria that is currently in the MCT Constitution. The referendum election will just be a first step to get an idea of what the majority opinion is of MCT membership. If the majority opinion is that MCT members should be able to vote on this topic, then a second election will be held that is called a “secretarial election.“ If the results of the secretarial election find that most MCT members believe that each Band should be able to establish their own enrollment criteria, each of the six Bands would then be able to decide for themselves what the enrollment criteria will be for their Band. Holding a referendum election and a secretarial election are the only ways to change the Constitution. Article 12 and Article 14 are the parts of the Constitution that dictate this process which we are following. Again, our vote this week was just a first step in a lengthy process that will begin by asking MCT members what they think. An educational effort will begin in coming months to further explain what all of this means. At Mille Lacs we will also have community meetings to share information and answer questions about the process.
Miigwech to our Mille Lacs Band member delegates for their hard work throughout this process and for looking out for our Band!
(To read the Constitution and MLB Statutes, please visit: https://www.millelacsband.com/government/tribal-register )
