Indian No More

Before being terminated, I was Indian.
Now I certainly don’t mean I was killed off or anything. It was 1954. The United States government didn’t do that anymore. They just filed away our tribal roll numbers. Erased our reservation from the map.
What were our tribal roll numbers? They were the numbers the tribe assigned to its citizens and used by the federal government to see who belonged to the tribe. So my number verified that I was Regina Petit (roll number 3669), daughter of John Petit (roll number 858), granddaughter of Maude Petit (roll number 25) and Sid Petit (roll number 18).And that was what made you Indian to the US government-numbers.
Even after all that counting, the government chose to terminate us. I really don’t know all the reasons why, but my chich, my grandmother, said this much: “Termination means we’re the walking dead.”
Now I ask you, how can we be dead if we’re still walking?

And that was what made you Indian to the US government-numbers.
Even after all that counting, the government chose to terminate us. I really don’t know all the reasons why, but my chich, my grandmother, said this much: “Termination means we’re the walk- ing dead.”
Now I ask you, how can we be dead if we’re still walking?