Exploring the Historical Complexities of Native Identity Formation, Blood Quantum, and Modern Tribal Enrolment Criteria

Year

In the United States, blood quantum (BQ) based enrolment criteria find their roots in settler-colonial policies to erase, assimilate, and subjugate Indigenous Peoples and individuals. As a result, Native Nations throughout the United States continue to debate such practices. Current research on Native individuals’ identities does not fully account for the impact of BQ laws. Native people’s self-identity includes their identity as an enrolled or unenrolled member of their tribe. While research has examined the formation of Indigenous identity at the community and population level, current scales and tools do not properly examine the effects of BQ based enrolment on identity at the individual level. This commentary reveals how BQ based enrolment criteria negatively impact Native Nations which implement it and calls on Native Nations and Native researchers to explore the relationship between colonial enrolment policies and the impact on identity formation and lived experiences.

Resource Type
Citation

Carson, W. O., Cordova-Marks, F. M., & Carroll, S. (2024). Exploring the Historical Complexities of Native Identity Formation, Blood Quantum, and Modern Tribal Enrolment Criteria. Journal of Global Indigeneity, 8(1).

Related Resources

Thumbnail

"Blood Quantum and Sovereignty" is a beginner-level conversation focused on why blood quantum is controversial, as well as how it came to be used as an enrollment and citizenship criteria for Native nations. Produced and recorded by Native Governance Center on March 30, 2022. Featuring: Wayne…

Thumbnail

Michigan State University Law Professor Matthew Fletcher compares and contrasts between Anishinaabe conceptions of citizenship and belonging historically and today, and proposes that conference participants consider taking some innovative approaches to redefining citizenship that address the…

Thumbnail

Several Native leaders and scholars discuss the growing movement away from blood quantum as a primary criteria for determining eligibility for citizenship in Native nations.