Blood Quantum Research Articles

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

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.

Relationship of American Indian blood quantum with osteoporosis risk: a cross-sectional study of American Indian women in Oklahoma.

This study was designed to investigate the effects of AI blood quantum (BQ) on osteoporosis prevalence and risk in a cohort of AI women in Oklahoma. Women (n = 301), aged 50years and older, were recruited to participate in the Oklahoma American Indian Women's Osteoporosis Study. Baseline bone density, fracture history, bone biochemical markers, and potential risk factors were assessed. Participants were stratified by AI BQ into BQ1 ≤ 25%, BQ2 = 25-49%, BQ3 = 50-74%, and BQ4 = 75-100%. The effects of BQ on the prevalence and risk of osteoporosis were evaluated. Based on T-scores, one in approximately eight women in the study was osteoporotic at one or more sites. The prevalence of osteoporosis decreased (p < 0.05) with increasing BQ, especially at the hip, trochanteric, and intertrochanter regions. No differences in bone-specific alkaline phosphatase and C-telopeptide were observed across BQ that could account for the differences in bone density. 25-OH vitamin D decreased with increasing BQ, but mean for each BQ1-4 was > 40ng/mL. Fracture history did not differ across BQ, and though 52% of the population consumed less than the RDA for calcium, no effect of BQ was observed. In this cohort of women who identified as AI, greater Indian BQ was associated with a decrease in the prevalence of osteoporosis.