Bipartisan bill introduced by Washington, Idaho representatives could ease Native Americans’ travel across Canadian bord

[admin]

Before there was a border dividing North America, there was the Ktunaxa Nation. Relatives from all across the Ktunaxa Nation could visit each other freely, and hunt and gather along their vast homelands to feed their families. Now the nation is divided by a border, with four First Nations in what’s now Canada, and two in what’s now the United States. The last hereditary nasukin, or chief, of the Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqǂiʾit First Nation — one of the six making up the Ktunaxa Nation — could cross from Canada into the United States by walking from one side of his house to the other.

After the American Revolutionary War the United States and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Amity Commerce and Navigation, commonly known as the Jay Treaty, in 1794. It allowed for commerce and provided free border crossing to U.S. citizens, British subjects and Indigenous peoples but the border boundary remained unclear. The colonial border between the U.S. and Canada was formally decided in the Oregon Treaty of 1846 which placed the future states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana in what is now the U.S. When creating the border, there was never any consultation with the Native nations whose ancestral lands the border divided, cutting nations in half. Some Indigenous people woke up one morning in a new country, subject to a whole new set of laws.

Citizens of federally recognized First Nations in Canada can cross the border, or what many Indigenous people call the northern medicine line, into the United States with identification issued by a Native nation. However, they may be asked to show proof of at least 50% blood quantum, violating the rights of Native nations to establish their own citizenship requirements. Washington Rep. Derek Kilmer and Idaho Rep. Russ Fulcher, in collaboration with the Jay Treaty Border Alliance, introduced legislation in March called the Tribal Border Crossing Parity Act. This legislation would eliminate the blood quantum requirement, simplifying the process for Indigenous people to cross from Canada to the U.S., something Indigenous leaders across the U.S. and Canada are in support of.

“Blood quantum was originally imposed by the United States as a method of eliminating Indians and Indian Nations,” said Jennifer Porter, chairwoman of the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho. “While some tribes continue to use blood quantum to determine citizenship, it is their choice to do so. It gets back to tribal self-determination and governance. Tribes and First Nations should have the right to determine who our citizens are based on criteria we have adopted, not criteria imposed by outside governments like the United States.”

Porter went on to say that Native identity is not tracked using blood quantum in Canada, adding another layer of complications at the border.

“It separated families,” said Heidi Gravelle, Nasukin of the Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqǂiʾit First Nation, also known as the Tobacco Plains Indian Band.

The Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqǂiʾit First Nation is one of several Ktunaxa Nation communities in Canada, where the southern boundary of their reserve touches the U.S. border in Montana. With the creation of the border, Gravelle’s own family was split in half. Her grandmother had to choose whether to live with her father’s family in what’s now considered Canada or her mother’s in what is now considered the U.S. All her family used to live in one region and the border separated them into two different countries with their own unique laws.

The border has added additional difficulties in daily life as well. Today, kindergarten through 12th grade students from the Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqǂiʾit First Nation must cross the border to get to and from school in Montana, according to Gravelle.

“You never know when you cross which rights of yours as an Indigenous person are going to be violated and to what extent,” Gravelle said.

https://www.opb.org/article/2024/04/16/ ... us-canada/