October 30, 2026
By Mashkodebizhikigahbaw - Benji Sam
Recently at a local event, I was asked to be a speaker as a featured artist presenting my work and background on all things birch bark. This opportunity brought a creative and fun challenge, to share a 45-minute presentation on how, where, when, and why to harvest birch bark ethically and sustainably for creative and traditional use. This conversation sparked a series of questions that arose organically during the presentation, and while most people who raised their hand asked questions of specific details on the process of harvesting birch bark itself, there was also a group of people who approached me after to ask questions in private.
While it was wonderful fielding so many questions about something love working with, the most profound question I heard all night was from someone looking to buy a piece of art I made but they were faced with their own internal dilemma. This person approached with humility and respect, and with good intentions they asked if buying and wearing a birch bark medallion could be viewed as disrespectful because this individual didn't think that they were "Indian enough" to represent native design on something like a birch bark medallion.
I understand where this person was coming from, and it was quite refreshing to know that someone would even ask if there was anything disrespectful about wearing something that represents a culture they did not completely identify as their own. And so, I answered in the best way I knew how, explaining that there are in fact items that should probably not be worn, displayed, or appropriated by someone from an outside perspective. However, I couldn't get past that line — Indian enough. So, I followed up and asked, "What do you mean by you aren't "Indian enough" to wear something like this?"
They responded because they didn't have enough blood to be enrolled in any local tribes, that might meant they weren't supposed to represent the culture their spirit so clearly draws them back to. They explained that while they weren't raised near the Reservation and grew up going to church, they have only recently gotten into trying wild ricing and attending powwows despite having grandparents who were very well known from our tribe. In that moment I began to remember what it meant to be a kid who grew up at a strange place in time where I was often "too brown to be white and too white to be brown." I was often someone living in the between, walking in both worlds, a role that I now believe I have accepted and ran with entirely to this day.
What has stayed with me since that night is that my heart ached for this person who even felt the need to ask this of me, knowing that life experiences have molded this person into needing to ask things like "I wonder if I am Indian enough to be able to buy that picture" or "Am I really traditional enough to take that Ojibwe language class?" It begs the question about blood quantum, what the future holds for many tribes around the country, and what it really means to be Anishinaabe.
I understand the Minnesota Chippewa Tribes organization has had votes and discussions back and forth with one another throughout the state to discuss what should be done about blood quantum in the future; because we are the only people on this continent that have to prove by blood testing and family trees that we are who we say we are. But beyond the percentages, at what point did we gain the right to decide who is Native enough to represent their family heritage when they were raised in that realm or have a desire to connect with their family's connection to culture, spirituality, and the land and water from which we are all born from.
The reality is, if we follow our current projection, we don't have too many centuries leit on this continent with blood quantum left at 25% to be enrolled in a tribe. But through preservation and knowledge sharing, we just might be able to spare our culture and heritage the way we need. It takes waves of younger generations to stand up together in belief that the way we lived before can succeed in the world we have before us. Just like the birch bark talk that brought this conversation up in the first place, birch bark knowledge isn't mine. It is simply mine to carry for now because of people who made their journey before me like my Grandma Betty, Great Grandmothers Batiste and Maude, Margaret Hill, and more who decided someone like me deserved to have the chance to carry some of this knowledge forward. If we aren't careful, those ways and teachings will be lost forever.
I realize that life is often full of challenges and achievements where sometimes you win and sometimes you learn. But it can also have a profound way of feeling like everyone loses when we don't work together. After a brief chat with a total stranger that day while discussing wearing or not wearing a simple birch bark medallion and hearing this person's backstory and connection to the area, the people, and their family's historical connection to some very traditional ways, I wish I could go back in time and do it all over again.
So if you live in a good way, you respect the land, water, resources, and respect your culture, the teachings given to you, and the people around you — I just want you to know, "You're Indian enough for me."
