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July 26, 2002
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Marion’s Story
By Maxine V. Eidsvig
In the June 7, 2002, issue of Press/ON there was a story of
the early lace makers on the Lower Sioux Reservation near Morton,
Minnesota. The article ended with a
brief mention of Marion Ross, the granddaughter of Jeanette Crooks
Campbell. Marion Ross (aka Lorraine
Bucholz) has been trying since October 29, 1998, to transfer her
enrollment
from the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe to the Lower Sioux Indian
Community.
Records indicate that there is good reason for Marion’s
desire to be enrolled in the Lower Sioux Indian Community, although
there are
those who will contend that it is only for per capita that she seeks
enrollment. Marion was born on the
Lower Sioux Indian Community on March 19, 1920, to Amelia Jones Bucholz
and
Otto Bucholz. There are birth,
baptismal, and school records to verify that she as well as her mother
and
brothers, were indeed residents of the community. Her
grandmother, Jeanette, was also born and raised on the
reservation and is listed on the census rolls of the Mdewakanton Band
of Sioux
Indians of Minnesota of 1886. Until the
Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 was enacted, there were no other
formal
census rolls where one could be listed.
Marion was
away at the Flandreau, South Dakota Indian
boarding school at the time the representatives of the BIA traveled to
the
various Indian reservations in Minnesota and South Dakota in 1934 to
assist the
communities in forming governments under the Indian Reorganization Act,
which
reversed the policy of allotment and encouraged tribal organization. These representatives signed off on the
tribal rolls prepared by tribal members. Since
Marion was physically at Flandreau, she was
listed at Flandreau
and for some reason her mother and brothers were also listed at
Flandreau even
though they had always resided at Morton. In
1973, the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe wrote the
Lower Sioux
Community and asked for verification that the Lower Sioux Community had
enrolled the Bucholz family—Amelia and her children, including Marion. In June of 1979, the Lower Sioux Community
“reaffirmed the membership” of 24 individuals, all of who had sought
enrollment
much earlier. In March of 1980, the BIA
affirmed the membership of the 24 individuals. The list included Amelia
and
five of Marion’s brothers but not Marion. There
is no logical explanation as to why Marion was
not included. |
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