Native American Sovereignty

I decided to go to the Native American speaker on Thursday, November 17th and expecting to be bored I was actually surprised at how energetic the speaker was. I went in with the mindset of "Oh boy here it goes, an hour of some guy talking about Indian rights and other things I could care less about". The topic he talked about was, to put it bluntly, terribly boring; However he sparked life into this bland and boring subject on Indian Sovereignty by his fervor and energy by which he spoke. He brought up one interesting point in the very beginning and it was somewhere along the lines of within 150 miles of here, in the eight cardinal directions, is a Native American tribe. He was from Oregon and was... Shawnee I think? I forgot to write that part down. however I thought that was interesting that we have such a diverse population of Indians within a 150 mile radius.

One thing he brought up was his card stating that he was a Native American. He had an interesting story about this card. He and his family went to Canada for a couple of days and had no trouble getting into Canada. They had fun and did whatever Native Americans in Canada (which I am sure is very much the same as any other person visiting our "friends" across the northern border). However, after their vacation, they realized that they did not have a birth certificate or any other form of documentation to show that his daughter is a citizen of the United States. As they were about to clap his daughter in irons and cart her off to prison (dramatization), he had the brilliant idea to show them her Indian card thingy. After seeing this card, they allowed her to cross the border back into the United States with no trouble.

I thought that was interesting and came to find out it is because Indian Tribes are sovereign groups with their own rights and these cards that they carry are sufficient to cross the border. All I can say is i wish i was part Indian. I could carry a cool card to get be across the border and I could get money from the government. Cool!