Grand Theft Identity
Much publicity has been given to the problem of stolen identity. Thieves take someone else’s personal information and they open credit card accounts and even steal money from bank accounts with the usurped identity. This crime is so despised that it becomes a felony punishable by law. Yet, no politicians or law makers worry about a group of poor Indians who have suffered the same fate.
This is what has happened to the Aaron Brooks’ family of Harper’s Ferry for almost a century. The Brooks family underwent blood testing and an anthropological examination in the late 1930’s to ascertain their Indian identity. Their identities were federally recognized by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs after many months of anxious waiting and much opposition from both the government and their neighbors who did not qualify under the criteria set forth by the Department of Interior at the time.
Jealousy took many faces and drug many victims along the way. The Aaron Brooks’ family never saw the benefits of this official recognition due to the misrepresentation of their names and the fact that the government looked the other way hoping the problem would go away on its own.
Nowadays, the Brooks family and their descendants, see themselves struggling to survive both economically and as an Indian tribe. Whenever the Siouan Indian of Lumber River, as they were officially recognized, request assistance from Social Services, they are directed to a Lumbee Indian Representative who informs them that they must be enrolled as Lumbee Indians in order for them to receive such aid.
With their identities blatantly stolen, the Siouan Indians of Lumber River have seen their lives stagnating since the government have not done anything to protect their rights as ratified by the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. The abuse against these Indians started since the arrival of the White man and it insidiously continues to this day. They have lost everything that sets them as Indians including their culture, their language, and their lands, but no one seems to think that this is genocide at its best.
It is overwhelmingly right that the Lumbee Indians gain their federal recognition like any other tribal group. Nevertheless, this does not give them the right to circumvent the system already in place by the government. No amount of politician support should be criteria enough to allow them to obtain recognition while the Brooks family and other tribes have not been able to do so despite of their official acknowledgement as Indians.
It is downright wrong that someone pretends to be something they are not by stealing the most essential of human needs –personal identity. Not only do the perpetrators take away the basic rights of their victims but they also take away the essence of their lives and who they are as human beings. It is time that this crime against the Brooks family and their descendants be stopped and be punished by the maximum extend of the law.