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Native American Tribal Enrollment

Tribal Enrollment Process (U.S. Department of the Interior)
Provides a brief description of the tribal enrollment process. See also, the department's Trace Indian Ancestry page.

Tracing American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) Ancestry. Includes a link to Certificate of Degree of Indian or Alaska Native Blood Application and Instructions. (Bureau of Indian Affairs)

What is the Certificate of Degree of Indian or Alaska Native Blood (CDIB)? (State of Oklahoma)
Provides a short description of CDIB as well as a links to useful resources.

FAQs for individuals seeking Native American Tribal membership (Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs)
Provides a brief description of the tribal enrollment process.

Enrollment Procedures and Recourse (University of Oklahoma Law Library)
This article, one of several publications provided by Oklahoma Indian Legal Services, was written by Gregg L. Lewis, University of Oklahoma, Native American Studies student.

See: I. Researching Tribal Membership in this article: A legal practitioner's guide to Indian and tribal law research. 5 American Indian Law Journal 102, 125. (2016)

Best Practices for Defending Tribal Membership Cases: Leading Lawyers on Navigating Tribal Membership Enrollment Issues (Thomson Reuters, 2013. ISBN: 978-0-3142-9084-7)
Provides an authoritative, insider's perspective on the critical importance of tribal membership to both the individual member and to the tribe. See NILL catalog record or purchase a copy. This book may also be available through your local law library.

American Indian Tribal Law by Matthew L.M. Fletcher (Wolters Kluwer, 2011. ISBN: 978-0-7355-9975-8)
Chapter 4 covers Tribal Membership, including membership criteria, judicial review of membership determinations, disenrollment, and federal government intervention. See NILL catalog record or purchase a copy. This book may also be available through your local law library.

Law review articles on tribal enrollment are indexed in the NILL library catalog. Many are available online in full-text while others are available by request from the library.

For court cases, federal legislation, and news that is relevant to tribal enrollment, search "enrollment" or "membership" in the Indian Law Bulletins. Here is a sample news article from Indian Country Today: What Percentage Indian Do You Have to Be in Order to Be a Member of a Tribe or Nation?

Enrolling in a Tribe

Indian tribes are sovereign and set their own rules regarding tribal enrollment and membership. In order to find out what requirements a specific tribe has, contact the tribe's main office or tribal enrollment office.

In addition, enrollment or membership requirements often can be found in tribal constitutions or tribal codes. Visit the NILL Tribal Law Gateway to review our collection of tribal codes and constitutions. Search for "enrollment" or "membership" to find sections on those topics.

Most tribes have blood quantum and/or lineage requirements. See our guide to Tracing Your American Indian Roots for tips on genealogy research.

Native American Tribal Membership. This is a guide to enrollment or membership for Colorado tribes published by the Colorado State Library.

Possible Benefits from Tribal Enrollment

Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Financial Assistance and Social Services and American Indian/Alaska Native benefits.

Myth of a monthly check, see page 2 of Guide to Tracing Your American Indian Ancestry (Bureau of Indian Affairs)

For more general information on rights of Native Americans, see the book The Rights of Indians and Tribes by Stephen Pevar (Oxford University Press, 2012. ISBN: 978-0-19-979535-2). See NILL catalog record or purchase a copy. This book may also be available through your local law library.

Disenrollment

Article: Citizenship, disenrollment & trauma. (2017)

National Native American Bar Association's Formal Opinion No. 1 - Duties of Tribal Court Advocate to Ensure Due Process Afforded to All Individuals Targeted for Disenrollment (June 26, 2015).

Law review articles and other resources on disenrollment are indexed in the NILL library catalog. Many are available online in full-text while others are available by request from the library.

For cases, legislation, and news on disenrollment, search "disenrollment" in the Indian Law Bulletins.