Tribal officials are hoping to hold the special election in July. The Bureau of Indian Affairs would oversee the election, which the Tribal Council requested in May 2015, said Danelle Smith, an attorney for the tribe.

Smith said enrolled Winnebago members ages 18 and older, regardless of residency, will be eligible to vote. Tribe members must register to vote in the special election. The measure would require a simple majority for passage.

Prior to 2009, the tribe required at least one-quarter Winnebago blood relationship to qualify as an enrolled member. An amendment approved that year was designed to allow a parent or grandparent that belonged to the tribe to count blood relationship with other federally recognized tribes to meet the blood quantum criteria.

At that time, some offspring of tribal members who intermarried with members of other tribes, for example, were just short of meeting the blood quantum criteria. The expanded definition added hundreds to the membership rolls, many of them children and young adults.

"When they changed it back in 2009, they didn't realize they didn't set a minimum amount of Winnebago blood," Ware said. "You could have 1 percent Winnebago blood and 99 percent whatever tribe."

The tribe currently has 5,260 enrolled members. Prior to the 2009 change, enrollment stood at around 4,100.

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