Here:
The Cherokee Nation has an automatic 240 day citizenship that attaches to any newborn who is a descendant of the Dawes Rolls. This was enacted to ensure that newborns are Cherokee citizens subject to the Indian Child Welfare Act’s protections and presumes that the parents will make a decision whether the enroll the child as a Cherokee citizen during their infancy. I would like to see our Nation go one step further and simply have natural born citizenship laws like other sovereigns throughout the globe, but that’s an aside. The decision from the the Tenth Circuit is here. The federal court does not like the idea of this “temporary citizenship” for inclusion in protections of a federal statute.
My question for tribal legal reform: why have people “enroll” a child as a citizen in the first place? Why not have Cherokee Nation laws that automatically extend citizenship to children who are eligible for citizenship and if someone chooses to disavow their citizenship, go thru the administrative process to renounce citizenship? When tribes requires someone to “enroll” as members/citizens of the Nation, it contributes to the idea the tribal citizenship is inferior to other citizenship. I envision this sequence: Citizenship by birth, followed by a Cherokee Nation Birth Certificate and/Cherokee Nation ID card for documentation purposes, followed by a Cherokee Nation driver’s license to operate a vehicle.
Turtle Talk 
I think this is a great idea. I hope this happens for ALL Native Tribes. I feel that it is very important to protect thesoveriegnty of our tribes.
Alfred B. Azure, Sr.
Tribal Court Lay Advocate
Fort Peck Indian Reservation
Wolf Point, MT 59201
I ask with full respect to the author(s) and in full support of the exercise of tribal sovereignty: What of the broader ramifications? What legislative challenges at federal level for multiple agencies (with our over 560+ tribes) creating birth certificates, drivers licenses, etc? What about considerations of treaty history surrounding citizenship and rights to citizenship? How to implement such a broad citizenship and services exercised via tribal sovereignty when looking to the historic struggle on this front? Consider treaty history on “passports.”
Tribes already have license plates and that doesn’t seem to create any problems on a federal level; I would support this
Once again the Courts chip away at the protections afforded to Indian children under ICWA. Tribal membership is to be left up to the tribes themselves to determine what that is. The Cherokee Citizenship Act is a membership provision adopted by the tribe and should not be subject to a state court’s interpretation as to validity. Tribal membership should solely be determined by tribes and not state courts.
I’m constantly surprized at how sovereign concepts that are universally accepted in all other contexts somehow get questioned in the context of tribal sovereigns. No significant difference exists for treating tribes different than other soveriegns. Anytime a court brings up the “unique” quality or history related to tribes it is always a prelude to rationalizing a choice that in any other context would be seen as unfair, and in my opinion, belies its unfairness. So, my question is, if “jus sanginus” (citizenship conferred by birth to parents who are citizens) is an otherwise universally accepted concept dating back as far as anyone can remember (See Vattel’s Law of Nations circa 1758), why should that concept not be just as legitimate in the tribal context? Answer: It should be…unless your goal is to marginalize tribes at every turn.
Well Prof M D Oeser, you are hitting all around the fact of the matter, yes birth blood is the answer, but and Its a ole BUT, in order for blood to matter as to citizenship there must be a nation of citizens involved that the said parents are a citizen there of…
And with the Cherokee Nation this was true up to 1898, and the Congressional Act known as the Curtis Act that wiped out the judicial systems of all Indian tribes in the United States: Thus so went their governments to claim or allow Citizenship, there is much history that must be delved into in order to rationalize or make a claim an Indian is a citizen of any said Indian Nation, Many have come back but the Cherokee Nation is not one of them, and to under stand this you only need to read this decision http://www.cornsilks.com/adecision.pdf in 09 by the assistant Secretary of the interior. An again of course it’s not exactly that simple there is much to grasp, to know the truth and facts of the matter!
Thinking the state of Texas does NOT recognize Tribal tags. Also, hospitals use Social Security numbers for billing Medicaid. Social Security numbers appear to be a major requirement for identification in the US for federal program etc…I realize this isn’t a problem if one is born in an Indian Hospital, but could be a major problem out of Indian country. Tribes would have to increase the importance of registration programs, increase staffing.and be proactive in citizenship (policing if you will) of its members. Tribes have allowed the State to care for children in custody because of expenses involved with Child Welfare programs and I guess this would also change. My Cherokee ID cards indicate “second class” citizenship as it says “I have all the rights of a US citizen”. I am not opposed to the idea of a Birth Certification process, driver license etc…but will have to be really thought out and every kink ironed out. One kink… if Mother non-Indian and Father Tribal member denies paternity…how would the tribe handle this case. 1. The child probably wouldn’t be born in a Tribal hospital…2. Tribal genetic testing??? More costs…3. what would be the child’s legal status during the birth to testing period??? 4. What would be the child’s name..especially last name???