Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood

A Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood is a legal document issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, indicating status based on lineage or bloodlines and designating someone as American Indian, Alaska Native, Eskimo, Inuit, or otherwise federally recognized. Such individuals may be eligible for federally administrated programs or benefits from federally recognized tribes. In certain circumstances, an individual may be ineligible for enrollment in a federally recognized tribe but may be eligible for federal services based on a combined degree of Indian blood (CDIB) equaling one quarter. The CDIB is an arbitrary measure implemented by the U.S. government to account for American Indians when they were confined to select locations and before the Indian census began.

There is no true degree of Indian blood, as this term was originally based on English horse breeding. It was used by the commissioner of the Office of Indian Affairs during the 1800s so that the Department of War could track and provide an accounting of Indian men and their families by identifying intermarriages or children born of Indian females. The Indian agent provided a census to the Office of Indian Affairs that included head of household, occupation, name of wife or wives, and names and ages of children. The Indian agent, as an official representative of the federal government, made an arbitrary determination as to the degree of Indian blood. For example, if an individual was part of a tribe and both parents were of the same tribe, then that offspring was considered “full blood.” If one parent was non-Indian, then the child was considered a “half-breed.” The CDIB became an issue when tribes became eligible for federal funding and criteria were established.

Eligibility requirements were implemented for enrollment into federally recognized American Indian tribes and for villages in Alaska that were not American Indian but Alaska Native, Eskimo, and Inuit (who do not consider themselves to be American Indians culturally or linguistically). American Indian tribes established tribal constitutions beginning in 1934. Many tribes accepted the enrollment criteria based on guidelines from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Politically and in federal regulations, Alaska Natives, Eskimo, and Inuit are listed under the labels American Indian/Alaska Native or Native Americans. However, the enrollment criteria are based on village status and their relationship to the regional organizations that were established as part of the Alaskan Settlement of 1973.

Some federally recognized tribes have restructured their constitutions to change the criteria for membership to the traditional matriarchal or patriarchal lineage that was determined by family names, kinships, or [Page 85]relationships. Some tribes use the original 1888–1898 Dawes Allotment Rolls from the Office of Indian Affairs. This permits tribes to select lineage as the determinate of eligibility for enrollment. Other tribes have changed their constitutions to be inclusive of all tribal heritage. Therefore, anyone eligible for tribal enrollment in a particular tribe would be considered 4/4 (100%) Indian or as much of any one tribe as the family line can document. There is also a federal process to become a federally recognized tribe. Texas, Louisiana, and South Carolina have state-recognized tribes.

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