Thursday, December 4, 2008

Indian Blood Card

I am getting my Indian Blood Card and I am getting my daughters Indian Blood Card. This is very exciting because when I was just barely old enough to remember we went to get it and couldn’t. Sorry to taint this entry with mom issues but you haven’t heard about them yet so I will explain a bit. Might as well get it over with.
My mother and I are estranged. It isn’t that she did some wild crazy stunt like drive me to my aunts in California and stop and some random person house she met in online in LA and not tell a single person we were going there. I mean she did to that but that is not why we are estranged. She is broken in her mind. She won’t get help and none of my family will help her get help. They do not respect that I have grown into a normal healthy individual who makes decision based on what is best for myself rather then for them. If it were up to my family birds would fly and then come back to the same nest to start the next generation. Talk about over crowding.
So my mother messed something up and we couldn’t get our Indian Blood Cards. What she said about the whole doesn’t matter. What does matter is that she was completely wrong.
I know the facts now and that is all the matters. If you are one of the five civilized tribes recognized by the US government and you can trace your heritage back to the last person to register with the tribe then you can also get an Indian Blood Card. All you need is the long form birth certificate of each person including the person to last register. In my case that was my mother. So I just needed her birth certificate and my birth certificate. Texas state doesn’t issue a short form birth certificate, just incase your wondering. Long form birth certificates usually include the race, age, possibly even the type of employment of your parents at the time of your birth.
Then you can find your nations website and fill out the application form and you can send in all the original birth certificates and you will get your Indian Blood Card. It takes awhile for all the paper work to go through. It is well worth the wait though.
What can an Indian Blood Card do for you. I am not 100% sure but I do believe this is the same for most tribes. My tribe in Indian Blood Card will help you get a job at some places like Indian ran casinos. You can get help financing a house. Some people qualify to live in nice retirement communities. You get free preventive health, dental and vision. Depending on where you live you may even be able to get free or low cost hospital trips or urgent care type of health care covered. You can get scholarships for school. There are Indian schools you can get live at while you go to school for free. Once your in college and have finished the first semester you can even get money for clothes, how much is based on your grades.
That is an outrageous use of the taxpayers money you say. Well, I would like to proudly inform you that my tribe gets very little federal funding and the red tape attached to makes it not useful to most Native Americans. So my tribe has become essential a nation within a nation. Most of the money spent by them is made by them. So thank you for your last trip to the casino but your tax dollars are not being spent willy nilly by the Native Americans.
Thinking it must be nice to live so close to my reservation. Not quite, I live on the West Coast and my tribe is smack dab in the middle of the US. Yet, there is a healthy clinic less then 30 minutes away from my house. Several in fact in the state I live in. I can still get help to pay for college and housing loans without living close. So that is all the facts I have learned about the Native American community. I am very excited about getting. Not because I will be getting benefits but because I will then be able to get one for my daughter. With that comes peace of mind that should we need help with healthcare or education for our daughter we will have somewhere to turn. Going without that help all my life I truly understand how much that means. I am eternally grateful and have already offered my services to my tribe. I hope to also do more for them in the future.
If you have any questions about getting your Indian Blood Card contact me.
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14 comments:

  1. Wow great information. I'm 27 now and have wanted to get registered for a long time, my great great grandmother was full Chereokee, but I'm fairly certain she was the last to register as well.
    Do you know how one might get the birth certificate in a situation like this? She died while I was too young to remember, daughter died about 12 years ago, and her grandson (who is my grandfather) I don't even like...and lives 3 states away, lol.

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  2. You wouldn't need birth certificates in this instance you would get death certificates, I believe. Cherokee is one of the five "civilized" tribes so you would qualify for a card. If you think you know the state she died in contact their Vital statistics office and they can help you. Then you'll need her daughters death certificate and her grandsons birth certificate (which he will have to get for you)and your birthcertificate. Then go here
    http://www.cherokee.org/Services/Registration/default.aspx
    for you it will be a long process, but well worth it to know you and your children will always have a back-up plan as far as healthcare!!

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  3. Oh!
    No I didn't get a notification, and I completely forgot to come back and check on a response (even though I'm pretty sure I've been dropping here regularly lol)
    That's great news though, it's SOOO much easier than the process I was vaguely informed about. I'll have to get on this pronto!

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  4. Cool, I live in california and just got my choctaw
    indian blood card, Trying to figure out what i can use it for. I have no health insurance so hopfuly my card will help in that way.

    jennifer
    rhobri@yahoo.com

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  5. i am already registerd american indian . i have lost my registrstion card .where can i get another

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  6. I just recieved my descendant certificate of indian blood card, is that the same as the indian blood card. Its for Alaska Natives.

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  7. I am looking into this right away.

    This information was so helpful. Thanks!

    Malschaffer2@yahoo.com

    Please email me with any information I might need to know.

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  8. I just saw your blog and am interested if you might be able to help me as well. I am 25% Sioux my dad is 50% and my grandfather on my dad's side is 100% The only problem is I am estranged from my dads side of the family. I have never met them. I have my dad's soc sec # and my grandfathers full name. I know that my grandfather would have been the last person to file, but I do not know if he is living or dead. How do I go about getting birth certificates or death certificates for him. If you can help me that would be great I have my application filled out but have no documents to include

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  9. I just posted the anonymous comment about my dad being 50% and grandpa being 100% sioux you can send any info you have for me to crystalinaballerina23@yahoo.com

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  10. Hello! I don't know if you still check this, but was curious if you knew if a future CIB card-holder could be used for pre-natal things. I'm married to a Navajo man, and pregnant now. Our baby will be able to get a CIB card, but we have no insurance (he doesn't need it with his CIB card!), so I was curious whether there's any way to get help since our baby will be able to register.. Any suggestions/resources/info would be great! freespiritgrl@live.com

    Thanks!!

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  11. I am Cherokee Indian, specifically Keetoowah. I have a blood card as well. I am not a member of the Cherokee Nation because if I was my tribe wouldn't accept me. However, to be a member of the Keetoowah Band, you must have a blood quantum of at least 1/4, which I am. Sometimes it's frustrating to me when I tell people I'm American Indian and they don't believe me because of the way I look (blonde hair, green eyes, and pale skin). American Indians come in many different colors. We all do not look like Pocahontis! My father designed our tribal flag, is very active with preserving our culture and language, speaks Cherokee, and I was brought up with a lot of exposure to American Indians. In fact, at a Pow Wow I attended as a child, I was written up in the tribal newspaper for singing Amazing Grace in Cherokee. How can we educate people more on who we are as American Indians? Sorry, just had to vent a bit because I was just arguing with someone that I am, in fact, mixed race.

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  12. Hello all!
    I was recently looking into my ancestry and found that I have Native American blood on both my mother and fathers sides of the family. My great Grandfather was full blooded and my mothers Grandmother was at least half Native American. I have been on many sites but none seem to give a good answer on where I should get tested for bloodline so I know what tribes I came from and also the percentage so I can obtain my Native blood card. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Please email any responses to: mark.washington55@gmail.com

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  13. I KNOW I AM 3/4 INDIANA THAT IS OF CHEROKEE AND APACHE AND CHEYENNE ,IN MY FAMILY IT SKIPS ,I JUST WANT TO BE CERTIFIED AS AN INDIANA CAN SOME ONE HELP ME ,YOU CAN EMAIL ME AT,,,,,,,..... OTISCRAIN43@YAHOO.COM , THANKS .

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  14. My mother is 100% Cherokee, my father is 50% Sioux but his father was 100% Sioux. I researched the information necessary to obtain a tribal card but theres a roadblock that i encountered. I was adopted into an African American family so my birth certificate says African American. If anybody can direct me to where it is that I have to go where I can obtain my original birth certificate from, it would be helpful. Someone told me that I would have to go to where i was born, that county's town hall in order to get my original documents. I don't know much about my family becausr i was away from them for so many years, but i know enough and i was hoping that someone could help me fill in the blanks.

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Thanks for your comments!!!