Blood Quantum and its role in Native Identity
What is Blood Quantum?
Blood Quantum is a strategy used by the government and tribes to authenticate the amount of “Native blood” a person has by tracing individual and group ancestry. The amount a person has is measured in fractions, such as ¼ or ½. This measurement can affect a person’s tribal identity and ability to become a federal member.
The blood quantum policy was first implemented by the federal government within tribes to limit native citizenship. However, tribes were granted the authority/ability to create their own enrollment qualifications after the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.
Where was the term derived from?
Blood quantum, as a way to define native identity, was first seen during the allotment period between 1887 and 1934. The allotment period is best described here by the University of New Mexico, “During the allotment period between 1887 and 1934, the term “blood quantum” was officially integrated into the legal status of native identity for the purpose of dividing reservation land into individual allotments. Reservation-bound male heads of households received allotments, though in many cases a 1/4 American Indian blood quantum was used to determine who was eligible for an allotment of land. Due to the blood quantum qualification, many people were ineligible, thereby effectively reducing the Indian holding of land. “Surplus” reservation land was then open to homesteaders and corporations for purchase, creating patchwork quilt-like reservations with both American Indian and non-American Indian landholdings. Over 90 million of the 138 million acres originally designated as Indian territory were lost, and thousands of AIs (American Indians) were displaced.”
Why is this implication problematic?
Blood Quantum, as a way to ascribe Native American membership, has dire consequences. Blood Quantum policies are little other than genocidal and will eventually lead to the extinction of indigenous people.
For example, if the blood quantum limit is set at ¼ in tribal enrollment, and intermarriage proceeds, natives will eventually be defined out of existence. It is almost as if this erasure was premeditated by the government.
Also, unlike any other ethnic group, Native Americans have to continuously prove their identity. In order to federally be considered native, you have to be enrolled. Does any other ethnicity have to enroll to be a member of their own ethnicity? Do you have to enroll to be White? African American? Natives have to carry a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB, issued by the Bureau of Indian Affairs). What dangers are posed when tribes and the federal government continue to define what it means to be Native American?
If native communities uphold strict blood quantum rules, it is inevitable that enrollment numbers will decline and tribal communities will no longer be viable as sovereign nations. The use of Euro-American definitions of identity is outdated, as is blood quantum.
What are the harms of misclassification?
Federally being considered native is a strenuous process in which many natives do not have the ability to do. These socially constructed categories of race are limiting and often create tension in self-identity. Some natives are out-of-touch with their own identity or don’t feel “native enough” to identify as such. Within these barriers of classification, come issues, specifically in the medical aspect.
It is certain that natives face serious inequalities in health care services and not genetically identifying as native can lead to improper health treatment. Natives face lower life expectancies and disproportionate poverty rates, leading to the increased rates of: 3 times the rate of type 2 diabetes-related deaths, 1.7 times the rate of suicides, and 6.5 times the rate of alcohol-related deaths compared to whites.
Conclusion
All in all, blood quantum limits the holistic meaning of what it means to be Native American. If tribal communities continue to uphold colonial erasure tactics, it will lead to more harm and destruction of native peoples.
Works Cited
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/02/09/583987261/so-what-exactly-is-blood-quantum
https://oneida-nsn.gov/dl-file.php?file=2016/03/Article-2-Blood-Quantum.pdf
https://open.mitchellhamline.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1086&context=mhlr
