What does blood mean, when it comes to Indigenous identity? – The Globe and Mail
Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii) is the Prichard Wilson Chair in Law and Public Policy at the University of Toronto’s faculty of law. His book Valley of the Birdtail (with Andrew Stobo Sniderman) was the winner of the J.W. Dafoe Book Prize.
I am Douglas Sanderson, the son of Doug “Sandy” Sanderson (from the Dog Creek Reserve) and Esther Young (of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation). I am also Amo Binashii, Beaver Clan, of the Cree Nation. I came into these identities not all at once – but over time. I am Cree. I am also an Indian. The former is a tribal lineage, while the latter is a government-issued legal imprimatur. I also have a number, not just a SIN – I have a treaty number, printed on the federally issued ID card that affirms my legal identity as a status Indian.
I am also a Canadian citizen. But I was not born here – I was born in Germany and had to elect to shed my German citizenship at the age of 16.
I wasn’t always an Indian. I have always been Cree. My clan identity passed through my mother – we Cree are matrilineal, so I was born Cree and of the Beaver Clan. I wasn’t an Indian until some time in high school when, due to one lawsuit or another, the federal rules around Indian-ness changed, and suddenly I was, legally, an Indian. I was given a number, and later, the card. My name, Amo Binashii, was given to me by an Ojibway elder from the Serpent River Indian Reserve in the late 1990s.
I am, I think, well-credentialed to comment on matters of Indigenous identity because I have experienced a wide range of Indianness, legal and otherwise.
