08-20-05 @ 9:06 am EDT

My mother is applying for membership in the Sault Ste. Marie Band of Chippewa Indians. :( All of this, based on a few very vague e-mails which, from my own perusal, don't indicate whatsoever that we have any relation to the Ojibwa.

FROM: [e-mail omitted--my aunt on my mother's side]
DATE: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 9:52 AM
SUBJ: [Fwd: Fwd: APPLICATION SIOUX TRIBE]

Hey guys,

Wanted to forward this information on so you could get your applications in to become a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. It needs to be turned in by 5pm, Saturday 8/20 so you will need to act fast (you can fax the information in and then mail the money order). Also, I don't have emails for everyone so please print forms off for them (i.e. Gary, Carol, Wally, Rob, Paul, Mom, etc.). You'll need to enclose a money order for $25 for EACH application sent in. Chuck B. [name omitted, a cousin of my mom's I believe] is already a member and will be our sponsor. If I find out any more information I will let you know.

Rose [my maternal aunt]

From: [e-mail omitted--a cousin of my mom's, I believe]
Date: Mon Aug 15 18:23:05 CDT 2005
To: [e-mail omitted--Rose]
Subject: Fwd: APPLICATION SIOUX TRIBE

Everyone: Fill out this application and fax it over to Stacy's attention at [number omitted]. Jo, you do not have to fill this out for Kyle, only Todd and Steven. Any children under 18 do not have to fill one out. Dana, I will mail the money order today for you and I. She said I could put in the mail today but to get the app back right away. I'm going to email Chuck B. [name omitted] and let him know that Stacy and I spoke. She didn't want us sending duplicate applications. Put on the app you are being referred by Chuck, mom spoke to him this morning. The deadline is Sat. the 20th. Diana, Eric and Nick can fill one out as well. Let me know if anyone has any questions. Talk to you soon! Beth [my mom's cousin, I believe]

FROM: [e-mail omitted--Rose]
DATE: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 4:51 PM
SUBJ: [Fwd: Fwd: FW: APPLICATION STATUS/INFO.]

Additional information for the application.
Rose
From: [e-mail omitted--Beth]
Date: Tue Aug 16 10:19:45 CDT 2005
To: [e-mail omitted--Rose]
Subject: Fwd: FW: APPLICATION STATUS/INFO.

Hi Rose, As my sister's email states, I believe this will get us through the preliminary app process. When I receive more, I will send it on. I'll call you later.Karen

Hi Guys... This is what I sent Stacey this morning. I spoke with Rose and she's getting more information from Sharon sometime today but I think this will get us through the first stage of the application process. Anyone who hasn't faxed their applications I would just type a note, or put in brief description under no. 7. Jo, you could email her and list the names for whom you are sending this information for. Also, all money orders have to specify who they are for. Let me know if you have any questions. See ya! Beth -----Original Message-----
From: [name omitted] Beth
Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 9:08 AM
To: [e-mail omitted--I have no clue]
Subject: APPLICATION STATUS/INFO.
Importance: High

Stacey, This is the information that I have so far. My mother told me that my grandmother was a Morrow and so was Clarence Hudak's mother or grandmother. We are direct descendants of Angelique who is the daughter of Chief Black Cloud. They in turn are connected to the McGulpin(e) home on Mackinaw Island. I'm not sure if the spelling is correct. My great-grandmother on the B. [name omitted--my mom's maiden name] side I'm told was full blooded. My cousin Sharon N. [name omitted] said she became aware of our heritage when she and her sister were putting a family tree together for a book that we distributed at our family reunion some years back. With my grandmother being deceased since I was quite young most of this information was lost to us and we had no knowledge until recently (the last 8-10 years). We also had no idea how to go about getting an application prior. It just happened that my mother spoke with someone last week. I will have a lot more information once I speak to my cousin and will be able to pass this on to you at a later date. I will be passing this information on to my siblings as they are all sending in an application. Once again, thank you for putting up with me today and I apologize for being a pain. Thank you.... Beth [name and identifying info omitted]

FROM: [e-mail omitted--Rose]
DATE: Wednesday, August 17, 2005 5:21 PM
SUBJ: [Fwd: Fwd: Emailing: names for tribe]

From: [e-mail omitted--Beth]
Date: Tue Aug 16 16:45:15 CDT 2005
To: [e-mail omitted--Rose]
Subject: Fwd: Emailing: names for tribe

Hi Rose,Here is more info. I printed it and I am going to attach it to my application. I'll call you here in a little bit. Talk to you soon.Karen

The message is ready to be sent with the following file or link attachments:
names for tribe

Information in file image:

AUG. 16, 2005 4:05 PM
NO. 543
P. 1/3

#'s ARE GENERATION ORDER
1. PATRICK McGULPIN/McALPINE
          1'ST WIFE OTTAWA METISSE
          2'ND " MARY MAGDELENE AIDE-CREQUE
     2. WILLIAM McGULPIN
               WIFE * MADELLINE BOURASSA
          3. BELONGIE/BELLAMY/BELONNIE
                    * EMILY LISA LA BLANC
               4. WILLIAM McGULPIN
                         * ISABELLA CARRON
               4. (DIRECT DESCENDANT) HORTENSE McGULPIN
                         * ANTOINE MAJOR
                    5. EPHRIAM MAJOR
                              * VIRGINIA MORROW
                         6. GENEVIEVE MAJOR
                                   * DAVID EARL B. [name omitted--my mom's surname] SR.
                              7. VIRGINIA & SIBLINGS
               4. VIRGINIA McGULPIN
                         * THOMAS WARD
               4. CHLOE McGULPIN * LOUIS BOURASSA
               4. DOMETALDA McGULPIN
               4. (DIRECT DESCENDANT) MARY ANN McGULPIN * MAXIMUM MORROW
                    5. VIRGINIA (McGULPIN) MORROW

I looked them over repeatedly and told Ma the conclusions I'd come to, so I'm surprised that she decided to send in the $25 anyway. How can they make a claim for membership based on THAT? Number one, whoever typed it up in the first place has no clue what they're talking about because they appear to have mixed up the SIOUX with the SAULT. Same pronunciation--COMPLETELY different meaning. We are not related to the Sioux. Number two, who is this Angelique, this Chief Black Cloud, this "first wife Ottawa metisse"? This is the first mention we have of any of them, in our records--the Ottawa metisse isn't even included in our genealogy book. Can't find anything about an Angelique, either.

Ma suggested that perhaps this "Ottawa metisse" is Angelique. Even if she is:

* She's the FIRST WIFE, and according to the genealogy, NOT the mother of the children involved; hence, NOT a blood ancestor--hence, NO blood claim to be related to her.

* Not to mention the fact that...she's OTTAWA! Not Chippewa! Ma attempted to say, "Same difference"--but please try telling that to the Odawa we saw at the powwow, or to any of the Ojibwa whose band they're trying to join. Similar, but again, NOT the same.

Where is this claim to having ANY Chippewa blood, whatsoever? It's not in the three e-mails above. Yet that's what they're including in their claims. I know this sounds rude. But I rather hope their claims are turned down because if they're accepted, then this system makes absolutely zero sense to me. Absolutely no proof of relation to the OTTAWA, used as acceptance into the CHIPPEWA? Am I the only one seeing no sense here? /:(

Ma said that I should apply myself. However, the e-mails were sent four days before deadline, WITHOUT the application form (thanks a bunch), and we have no fax. Plus I see this as a waste of money in more ways than one. Why spend $25 on something that will likely be rejected? I've heard somewhere (don't know if it applies to all tribes) that you have to be AT LEAST one-sixteenth native in order to count. That would mean that I would have to have at least one great-great-grandparent, I believe, who was fullblooded. Not only is there no proof of that, but I seriously doubt it anyway--nothing in the genealogy so far indicates it. Big, big gamble on $25 which could be better spent on a bill. (Or on a book about the Ojibwa!) I'm not a gambler like my mother is and I prefer to spend my money on something that's ASSURED. IF somebody ended up accepted, then maybe. But I still have other reasons to hesitate. Coming soon.

Ma said that if I were a member I would get health insurance and everything. But I believe you have to pay a yearly fee to belong to a tribe. The thought of PAYING to belong to an ethnic group, frankly, turns my stomach. I bet the system works for those who really DO have a claim to claiming to be native, but for White Girl like me, who has only ever READ about the Ojibwa in books and has never spoken to one in her life, how could I rightly claim to belong among them? How could I PAY to belong among them? How could I take their money away from them? On the one hand I would like to belong but feel too guilty to because other people with a much more LEGITIMATE claim need that money more. On the other hand, I hate the thought of PAYING for that privilege! IMO you should not have to pay to belong. Either you are, or you aren't, and no amount of $$$ should make any difference regarding what blood is inside you. That's just for me, personally. I'm not ridiculing those tribal members who do pay their dues or fees or whatever they are. That's fine for them. It's just not fine for me. I would be a big huge phony, White Girl paying her fees each year to be listed as Chippewa (what, do I "stop" being Chippewa and revert back to White Girl if I stop paying??). And I can't stop thinking of people out there who are a QUARTER Indian, HALF Indian, ALL Indian, who would need that money and that acceptance far more than Pretender White Girl Me.

How could I rightly apply to join something I've only ever read about in books? How can ANYONE in this family? I probably know more about the Ojibwa than they do, combined. And I seriously doubt any of them will want to learn MORE if they get accepted.

Which left the reason WHY they're doing this in the first place. Ma had pointed out insurance money, so I assumed that. I have no insurance, period. Insurance would be nice, no matter where it's coming from. -_- But I think you have to pay a yearly fee to belong to the tribe so if we could afford that, couldn't we just as easily afford...White Girl insurance? We don't have the money to toss away on belonging to a tribe that none of us will have any interest in learning about or even going to visit! (The Sault is quite a ways from here. Do I imagine any relatives going up there and attending powwows and speaking with elders and...CRIPES! This is a stupid entry!)

I had to assume that the reason my relatives are applying for membership was for the benefits--$$$. And I HATE that thought. The tribal system, from what I've heard, can be messy enough--why do we need to go in and mess it up even more just because some great-great-something-or-other might have been part Indian! Ma insisted this was not the reason for their applications. She said they're all well off and don't need the money. With the possible exception of US, and she said that she was not interested in the money either, and is only curious to learn more. So...what would joining the tribe accomplish? They're not going to hand us giant volumes of lists of names and ancestors and such that will clarify our OWN history. It's OUR job to do that to join them in the FIRST place. How would acceptance into the Chippewa band satisfy anyone's curiosity? The only thing it would do is verify that we are viewed as having enough native blood to count. As for giving us CONCRETE things...names...dates...blood quotas...it is unlikely to do a thing about that. You can only get stuff like that from documentation, books, narratives, not from a card that says, "You're a member!" Am I the only one who sees that?

And after all of Ma's talk about insurance money, and a native friend of hers (the one who pointed this all out in the first place) getting so much money a year just for being a member, I rather assumed that was what she was getting at. NONE of these relatives are interested in the benefits...? So why are they all lining up with their applications? I don't get it. This is a huge family and they are all so popular, they don't "need" to belong to something else. Especially not something they know practically nothing about. At the very least they could show an interest in learning about this culture before sending in their $25 and forms. What do they plan on doing afterward, in the case that they're accepted? Displaying their card proudly and...then what? Will they turn down the benefits? Whatever they do concerning those, what then? Will they visit the tribe itself? See how they run things? Learn their beliefs and tribal history? At the very least (since I'm hardly one to talk about visiting anyone)...pick up a book, and try learning?

That's been MY only interest in all of this. From the moment I first saw the mails, I really, really wanted to know HOW we are related. WHO we are related to. Where, and when, and why. I want to know IF there is any Ojibwa, or Ottawa, or Iroquois or Menominee or what in my background. How much would be nice to know too. But not because I want to send in $25 and an application form--I already gave all my reasons why I don't want to do that. (And it's even imprudent (sic?) for me to turn such a thing down--I have no insurance or means of support WHATsoever! Here I am, no coverage, and I'm feeling for the OTHER people with more of a claim than me.) I want to know just because this is something I've been passionate about for a couple of years now, and to find out that it's actually a part of me, or rather I'm a part of it, well, that would be reward enough in itself. I already know that I'm connected, tenuously, to Mackinac Island, through the McGulpins. I already know I have at least one Indian or metis, Symphorose Ouaouagoukoue, in my past. (I don't know what tribe she is though...) I've heard rumors that there is some Iroquois somewhere back in there, but I don't know. Everything else is so vague. I would like to know for sure, only to know if there's a real connection. I don't know--maybe this is paranormal or New Agey or just plain weird. But if I knew there was a REAL, blood connection there, maybe it would explain some things. Like why I feel the way I feel, why some things make more sense to me than others, why I feel a greater connection to some things and not to other things. If there's a connection there and it's real, as genealogy would show, then things would make more sense to me, and that alone would help me feel more of a connection to this place.

If there ISN'T a blood connection, well, my interest is still there, so there's no real loss, is there? Maybe we just like what we like.

But to shell out $25 on a maybe just strikes me as ludicrous. If they are accepted, at least on the basis of only what's given in the three mails above, then I think I will lose some respect for this system because something is obviously wrong. If they're turned down, maybe they'll bother to dig deeper the next time, and maybe I'll actually LEARN something concrete about my past. Ma keeps saying, "I don't know, I guess we'll find out." The only way we can find out is if we look for ourselves. Receiving a card granting membership into a tribe will not give any of those answers. I wonder if she really thinks it will.

So I feel very confused and conflicted right now. I want them to succeed, and not to succeed; I want to join, and not to join; to take advantage and not take advantage; to prove them right and to prove them wrong. I hope that at the very very least, a little bit of information comes out of all of this mess, so I can find out if there's any real connection at all, or whether it's all just in my head. :/

Apologies if this offended any tribal members who might stumble across it. As I said, I speak for me and my relatives only, not for anyone else.

(PS--I just asked Ma personally what she planned to do if they're accepted--would she pick up a book and try learning their history? She got all irritated and told me I was just trying to be pissy. I think my point is made. -_- )