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DENISA KRASNA
as Indigenous.'” As many critics of the blood quantum politics have argued,
this differential treatment is an effective strategy to reduce the numbers of
Indigenous people towards whom the government holds obligations."
Undoubtedly, the imposed bloodline restriction significantly limited the
number of Indigenous people able to gualify for a free cross-border passage.
Nevertheless there were also some who benefited from this reguirement.
As tribal affiliation stopped being relevant in determining one’s eligibility for
the Jay Treaty rights, therefore any First Nation, Métis, métis, and Inuit person
with more than 50% Indigenous blood could now “freely enter the United States
by right for the purposes of employment, study, retirement, investing, and/or
immigration.”™ Similarly, First Nation women who lost their status with the
imposition of the patriarchal Indian Act of 1876 and who proved the required
blood quantum could now not only freely cross the border to the US but,
perhaps even more importantly, become officially recognized as Indigenous
on the other side of the border. Strong and Winkle apply Spivak’s theory of
“useful yet semimournful position of the unavoidable usefulness of something
that is dangerous” to describe this reversal of what is essentially “a discourse of
conquest.” Still, the imposition of the blood quantum politics is emblematic
of the unequal relationship between the federal government and Indigenous
tribes that are not treated with the same respect as other sovereign nations.”
Unlike the US, Canada does not recognize the validity of the Jay Treaty even
though Boos et al. uphold that, unlike the United Kingdom, which considers
the Treaty “null,” Canada maintains the somewhat ambiguous position that
it has been “partially terminated” by the War of 1812.” In practical terms,
however, this interpretation has not allowed American Indians to freely cross
the border to Canada. As a consequence, a recent report shows that the vast
majority of First Nations agree that the treatment by US Border patrol agents is
generally more amicable than that of their Canadian counterparts who tend to
treat non-status Indians as immigrants, a label that has taken on many negative
connotations over the last century.” Furthermore, the US has shown more
willingness to cooperate and abide by the Jay Treaty by generally interpreting
it in a way that favors Indigenous people as opposed to Canada that has made
Gallagher — Lippard, Race and Racism in the United States, 177.
20 Ibid., 178.
Lillian Dyck - Dennis G. Patterson, Border Crossing Issues and the Jay Treaty, Senate of
Canada, Vol. 42, No. 1 (2016), 8-9, http://caid.ca/JayTreatyRepSSCAP2016.pdf (accessed 2
April 2020).
2 Strong - Winkle, “Indian Blood”, 565.
3 Leti Volpp, The Indigenous As Alien, UC Irvine Law Review, Vol. 5, No. 289 (2015), 313,
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Volpp.Indigenous-as-Alien.pdf
(accessed 3 April 2020).
24 Boos — McLawsen — Fathali, Canadian Indians, Inuit, Metis and Metis, 349.
Caron, Report, n.p.n.
e 272 "