These days it’s a big deal to be a federally recognized Native American tribe.

The tribe has to prove it has existed as a tribe for a long time and there’s a lot of paperwork associated with it. After recognition, the tribe is usually sovereign meaning they make their own laws on their reservations and the people from the outside can’t interfere with their government.

Federal recognition also brings with it money from the federal government in the form of grants among other things.

Now comes news that two unrecognized tribes are selling memberships for as little as $50 to illegals, telling the illegals this will be able to make them legal.

“You can’t just decide to become a member of a tribe and all of a sudden legalize your status,” said Marilu Cabrera, a spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

In Nebraska, some people reported paying up to $1,200 to join the Kaweah Indian Nation, which became the target of a federal investigation after complaints about the tribe arose in at least five states.

Manuel Urbina, the tribe’s high chief, acknowledged his group has sold at least 10,000 tribal memberships to illegal aliens for about $50 each.

“We are not going against the law, we’re with the law,” he said, claiming membership papers can help illegal aliens avoid being detained by authorities if they are asked for documents.

A Florida man has made similar sales pitches to illegal aliens on behalf of a North Dakota-based tribe.

The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs denied the Kaweah group recognition in 1985 because it was not a real tribe. A Kaweah tribe did exist once, but is unrelated to the one that applied for recognition.

John Dossett, a lawyer for the Washington-based National Congress of American Indians, called the group “just a total sham” and compared its membership offer to spam e-mail solicitations.

Angel Freytez of the Nebraska Mexican-American Commission said advocates have fielded complaints about the group from illegal aliens in Kansas, California, Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Tim Counts confirmed that documents from the tribe offer no protection “from the consequences of being in a country illegally. It won’t work.

My daughter in law is a member of an unrecognized tribe, and because she is it means my grandchildren by her are not recognized as Native American because my son just hits the bare minimum blood quantum to be considered a member of our tribe.

It’s like a band of Ward Churchills getting together and deciding they are a tribe because they claim a few drops of Indian blood somewhere way back in their heritage. Wanting it doesn’t make it so.