OCTOBER 15, 2007
5
Smoke Signals
Native sounds event to
rock Tribal gym on Oct. 20
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Photo by Toby McClary
Grand Rond General Manager and Tribal member Chris Leno
speaks at the 2007 Future Search Conference on Tuesday, Oct.
9. The forum was held on Oct. 9-1 0 in the Tribal gym and was the
first held since 1994. A story on the Future Search Conference will
appear in the Nov. 1 issue of Smoke Signals.
By Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer
The Red Dog Hand, Vernon Ken
nedy's (Paiute) rock 'n' roll, blues
and flute music band, will headline
an afternoon of bands they're
calling it "Native Sounds" begin
ning at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, at
the Tribal gym.
The Red Dog Dand also includes
Jack Witcraft (Klamath), Andy
Jackson (Nez Perce) and his girl
friend, Cindy Nixon.
The free music, hosted by Ken
nedy along with Tony Selwyn and
his wife, Tribal Elder Marcella Nor
west, is volunteer-driven. It's an
afternoon that Kennedy describes
as "just a community event."
Also playing will be One Blood, the
Eugene rock 'n' roll band led by Dave
Brokenhorn (Yaqui); the Healing
Heart Drum Singers led by Carol
Redbird (CherokeeArkansas) of Sa
lem; Tribal member Rex Haller and
Russ Hosley singing rock 'n roll and
Western; and "a couple of Klamath
guys led by Allen Nelson (Klamath)
playing Native music."
"We talked about it, and thought
we might do some Native and non
Native music for the community,"
Kennedy said.
The event continues throughout
the day. It also will include a pot
luck, so bring your best dishes. 0
Indian populations, test results
can provide evidence to assist in
the documentary and genealogical
research necessary to establish his
torical ties to particular American
Indian Tribal nations."
In other words, the company says
that DNA tests can point someone
seeking Native American designa
tion to an area of the country in
which to research their possible
Indian ancestors.
Santa Fe, N.M.-based DNA Con
suiting's Web page asks the hy
pothetical question: "I am Native
American can you tell me my
original Tribe?"
The answer
here, as on most
DNA consulting
Web sites, implies
that there is gold
at the end of the
test, and uses a
lot of technical
jargon that most
lay people will not
understand.
"Not always,"
says the DNA
Consulting Web
site. "We usually can't tell you
what group of modern-day Indians
you might belong to, but we can
identify what ancient lineages
your Y-chromosome or mtDNA
matches are, plus we can provide
you with an analysis of the gene
frequency for your (sic) in modern
day Tribes. For instance, many
Athapascan groups are almost
purely haplotype A. Haplotype C
is common among the Cherokee; B
among the Hopi and other Pueblo
Indians; X among the Ojibwe. Re
cent researchers, however, have
suggested that only about 10 per
cent of SNPs or mutations in Na
tive DNA are tribally specific."
Although DNA testing plays a small
part in any Tribe's enrollment re
quirements, technology continues to
challenge Tribal policies. Archer said
that one of the most difficult problems
comes when a potential Tribal mem
ber does not have a direct relationship
to other Tribal members.
Native Americans have been
around long enough in terms of
evolutionary time to develop ge
netic markers that distinguish
themselves as Native Americans,
but the problem is they have not
been around long enough to develop
genetic recognition markers for
Tribes, Archer said.
'They've taken a little bit of science
and they try to overestimate what
they can do with it," Archer said
about DNA testing companies.
"It's like I can tell you you're a
U.S. citizen but I can't tell you what
city you came from."
Called on to perform 700 to 1,000
tests monthly, Genetic Identity-Paternity
Experts envisions growing
demand.
"Like anything else," Archer
said, "when you find it's not that
expensive (about $325 for a legal
test) and you can get an answer
in a few days, you look at it more
favorably. In the old days, it cost
$1,000 to $1,500 and took a long
time to get results."
Not surprisingly, he added,
"Tribes with the most money are
adopting it more readily."
People seeking Tribal member
ship based solely on DNA testing
results should be careful before
spending their money, consumer
advocates advise.
"There's a kazillion of them tar
geting Tribal members," said Jan
Margosian, the Oregon Justice
Department's longtime consumer
advocate, though she reports no
complaints to date about DNA test
ing companies.
Margosian also wonders, how
ever, if victims would know to
contact her with problems. She
can be reached at Jan Margosian,
Consumer Information coordina
tor, Oregon Attorney General's
Office, 1162 Court St. N.E., Salem,
Ore. 97310; phone: 503-947-4333,
e-mail: jan.margosiandoj.state.
or.us; fax: 503-378-5017.
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DNA continued
from front page
paternity dispute.
DNA testing can positively deter
mine a fatherchild relationship, and,
in Oregon, most federally recognized
Tribes require a version of the test.
In Grand Ronde, the Tribe pays
for the test if the results are posi
tive. Other Tribes reduce the cost
by not requiring a more expensive
"legal test," where the DNA sample
is closely monitored.
At the Web-based DNA Diagnos
tic Center, cost for a legal "chain
of custody" test is $280 and for a
personal test, without the chain
of custody, it is $195. Turnaround
time for either test is five days.
If the mother is a Grand Ronde
Tribal member, the Tribe does not re
quire a DNA test. A birth certificate
suffices to prove Tribal ancestry.
While DNA tests are among
the most accurate uses of recent '
scientific advances in genetics,
companies high and low also offer
other testing uses, and sometimes a
Tribal wannabe is seeking evidence
that the testing can't provide.
"I can tell you that you're Na
tive American," said Dr. Robert
Archer, chief scientific officer for
Eugene-based Genetic Identity
Paternity Experts, "but I can't tell
you what Tribe."
Genetic Identity-Paternity Ex
perts provides DNA testing services
for the Grand Ronde Tribe.
With current DNA technology,
Archer said, scientists may find that
a person has an 85-percent chance of
being a Navajo, but with that comes
a 15-percent chance that the person
is not a member of any Tribe.
"And even if you're 100-percent
Native American, you still need to
be enrolled in a federally recognized
Tribe for it to do you any good (from a
financial perspective)," Archer said.
"Everybody wanted free money,"
Archer said, explaining why people
seek Native American DNA mark
ers. He suggested a popular line of
thought: ' 'Now that I'm Native Amer
ican, how much Native American
blood do I need to get college aid (as a
member of a minority group)?' "
For many colleges, race may be
only one of many factors weighed
in awarding scholarships. With
the Supreme Court indicating a de
creased tolerance for public schools
and universities using race as a
consideration in admission policies,
this avenue for affirmative action
has been waning in recent years.
In fact, affirmative action initia
tives have been so watered down
that, according to financial aid spe
cialists at Oregon State University
and the Univer
sity of Oregon,
any scholarships
based on diversity
allow students to
"self-designate"
themselves as a
member of the
minority without
verification, de
creasing the need
for DNA test evidence.
However, for
people seeking Tribal membership
to qualify for per capita payouts,
there is no standardization to en
rollment regulations, Archer said.
"Each Tribal group is a little dif
ferent. Each chooses its own meth
odology," he said.
DNA testing companies don't al
ways promise to provide the genetic
link necessary to prove a Tribal
affiliation, but they make it seem
as if their tests will help establish
that genetic trail.
DNATribes. corn's Q&A section
says in part: "Q: Can test results be
used to apply for American Indian
Tribal enrollment or to obtain offi
cial Indian status? A: No. However,
DNA match results can provide
genetic clues as to the regions and
living Tribal populations where
a person's DNA is most common.
Because of the strong genetic differ
ences observed between American
"I can tell you that
you're Native Ameri
can, but I can't tell
you what Tribe. "
Dr. Robert Archer, chief
scientific officer for Eugene
based Genetic Identity
Paternity Experts