Control Comics - Enfranchised Indian

Title: Enfranchised Indian

Identity is something I have struggled with a lot in my life, especially my early years. It always felt very solitary and alone.

What does it mean to be Indigenous when one side of your family is not? What does it mean to be Indigenous when your status as a First Nations person is determined in part by your genetics but also, in part by the history of this country? My legal Indian status is dependent on what happened in my history. Someone with a similar story could have a different outcome and a completely different relationship to that status as an Indigenous person, in large part due to the confusing policies of enfranchisement and the confusing policies that existed after their demise.

As a young person, being a status First Nation was very important to me. It made my perceived “authority” as an Indigenous person more real. That was a place I really struggled because I did not fit in with the other “full blooded” Indigenous kids in my community. As an adult I have come to realize the damage these titles have done to the collective that is the modern Indigenous community. Who has the right to claim Indigenous heritage? Who gets to determine who is a part of your community? Why is Indian “status” important?

Enfranchisement has an underlying quality of qualifying an individual as civilized or savage, the determining factors being dictated by the empire that hates your diverse qualities.

Some of the more obvious deleterious effects of enfranchisement then are women are worth less, the culture you are born into is worth less, certain jobs and functions in society are worth less. You only “benefit” as a male. In spite of the “benefit”, your children easily lose access to the land that you gained. If you are in a marriage and enfranchised and you die, your widow’s character is to be scrutinized and judged by a bunch of white males as to her quality and if she does not measure up, she inherits nothing. You will be “rewarded” by the government if you choose to assimilate and create planned division in your community. Once you have been assimilated, your enfranchisement is irreversible because your assimilation benefits the government. They do not want you to remain Indigenous.

Alongside its culture- and diversity-killing qualities, enfranchisement has succeeded in creating division in Indigenous communities and disempowering Indigenous women. Even though enfranchisement is no longer a part of the Indian Act, it continues to affect those who lost status involuntarily, especially women and those children who were adopted out of communities. It has made a status Indian more important in some communities than a non-status Indian. It has created division between the Métis communities that have had to fight to be recognized by our government as Indigenous peoples and the Indigenous communities that were always recognized as Indigenous. By some miracle and a giant dose of will and spirit, Indigenous communities have largely begun to right this deeply colonized division. But, it is a real clusterfuck and we are not out of it yet!