Analyzes Tracey Deer’s documentary Club Native to explore how the Mohawk Nation’s membership laws reflect and perpetuate the colonial legacy of the Indian Act. Focusing on the experiences of Mohawk women in Kahnawake, the paper examines how blood quantum requirements and restrictions on mixed relationships contribute to social exclusion, psychological harm, and cultural fragmentation. Drawing on Deer’s film and supporting scholarship, the author argues that these laws, intended to preserve Indigenous identity, ultimately reinforce colonial ideas of racial purity and threaten cultural continuity. The essay concludes by advocating for more inclusive membership models that balance ancestry with cultural participation to sustain Indigenous communities into the future.
