![]() Blood quantum really emerges as a way to trace race between generations of Native people starting at the turn of the 20th century. But our primary identity continues to be a political one. They do not have enough blood quantum, and therefore oftentimes cannot be extended tribal membership.Ĭan you talk to me about how the concept of blood quantum came to be used for Native tribes?Ĭertainly, American Indians have been racialized. And today, the ramification is that they do not have that original enrollee. ![]() Because of their black appearance, they were listed on a separate roll. And when these original roles were taken, oftentimes these freedmen were not included, even though those individuals may be of mixed heritage: black and Indian. And that assumption was based on their appearance, on their level of cultural involvement with their community.īut a great example for how to understand this problem in real life is that there is a history of freedmen who are black individuals who were living as fully incorporated members of Indian tribes. And that's that's one of the major problems with blood quantum today is that a lot of times, the people taking the rolls were federal government officials who were unfamiliar with Native ways of establishing and defining their own communities.Īnd so, for example, these officials would mark someone potentially as "full blood" when potentially that person was not. How did people know that those original enrollees had "full blood quantum"? So the quantum is a fraction of blood that is derived going back to the original enrollees of a tribe who were counted on Census rolls, and then their blood quantum was documented, and usually those original enrollees had a full blood quantum. So the way that blood quantum is calculated is by using tribal documents, and usually it's a tribal official or a government official that calculates it.īut really it's a mathematical equation. The federal government, and specifically the Department of the Interior, issues what is called a "Certified Degree of Indian Blood," and that is a card similar to an ID card. Here's my interview with Elizabeth Rule, edited and condensed for clarity.īlood quantum simply is the amount of "Indian blood" that an individual possesses. "The systems are so complicated," she explains, "but it's all part of tribes deciding on their own terms, in their own ways, utilizing their own sovereignty what approach is best for them."Īs we explored blood quantum in this week's episode, we thought a primer of what, exactly, this system is and how it works - or doesn't - might be useful. She's a doctoral candidate at Brown University who specializes in Native American studies, and also a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. "I use the term 'Colonial Catch 22' to say that there is no clear answer, and that one way or another, people are hurt," says Elizabeth Rule. ![]() So why keep a system that's decreasing your tribe's rolls and could lead to its demise?
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