The TCU Williams Lecture with Dr. Jill Doerfler was held on October 29th 2024.
Jill Doerfler (Anishinaabe) grew up on the White Earth Reservation in Northern Minnesota and is the daughter of an enrollee. She is a professor and department head of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She has lectured and published widely on the topics of citizenship, blood quantum, and constitutional reform. Her monograph, Those Who Belong: Identity, Family, Blood, and Citizenship Among the White Earth Anishinaabeg, examines staunch Anishinaabe resistance to racialization and the complex issues surrounding tribal citizenship and identity. She co-authored The White Earth Nation: Ratification of a Native Democratic Constitution with Gerald Vizenor and co-edited Centering Anishinaabeg Studies: Understanding the World Through Stories with Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair and Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark. From 2016 to 2020 she co-coordinated a grassroots community group, Zaagibagaang, which focused on providing accessible information and empowering people to participate in governance. In 2022, she co-authored Deb Haaland: The First Native American Cabinet Secretary (Lerner publications) with Matthew J. Martinez. In 2023, Dr. Doerfler became the editor for the American Indian Studies Series and Makwa Enewed imprint with Michigan State University Press. Recently she co-edited “Indigenous Periodicals” a special guest issue of American Periodicals (2023) with Cristina Stanciu and Oliver Scheiding.
Title: Battling Blood Quantum: Rights, Recognition, and Rebuilding Native Nations
Abstract: The US has used blood quantum to both gain access to land and other resources while erasing and eliminating American Indians in order to reduce US legal and financial obligations. In addition, the US pushed many Native nations to implement blood quantum requirements for citizenship/membership with the ultimate goal of those nations “disappearing.” Doerfler will share research regarding the specific experiences of the White Earth Nation and the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe including decades of staunch resistance but ultimate implementation of a blood quantum requirement for citizenship/enrollment, and efforts to return to kinship as the requirement for citizenship/enrollment today.
