Joe was 22 when he married Jasa’s mother Dana, who was 18. They were young; as for any concern about the blood quantum or tribal enrollment status of their future children, “I don’t think that was even a thought at the time,” Joe said.

Joe is enrolled in the tribe, and would find out later that his blood quantum is 13/32 Salish. Dana was a descendent of the tribe, but not enough for Jasa and her two brothers to meet the .25 (or 8/32) blood quantum requirement necessary to enroll.

That’s algebra. What’s tangible is that Jasa pays for college without the benefit of a tribal scholarship. Jasa’s brothers can’t legally hunt or fish with their father on the Flathead Reservation without paying a non-member fee.

And this, which Jasa wrote in a blog entry in 2005.

“Am I really native? I think it’s a question I’m always going to ask myself.”