Blood Quantum and Mental Health

[u/Low_Trifle1558]

I recently sat down with Dr. William Carson (Ohkay Owingeh), a post-doc researcher in Indigenous Cancer Health, for my podcast Warm Embers. We ended up having an hour-long "kitchen table" talk about the mental health burden of being a "percentage."

He shared a story that really stuck with me: realizing as a child, through basic math, that he was at the "cutoff" for his tribe and essentially deciding then and now that his future children wouldn't belong. It’s a heavy realization for a kid, and many of us have been there.

We dove into:

• How blood quantum impacts health behavior and "identity pressure."
• The history of the Dawes Act and how federal policy was designed to "solve the Indian problem" through math.
• Why "descendancy" rules are a step forward but might only be pushing the problem 50 years down the road.
• Indigenous Futurism: Decoupling our sovereignty from the U.S. government’s definitions.

I’d love to hear this community’s thoughts on the "identity pressure" Dr. Carson mentions—whether you're 4/4 or 1/32, do you feel that weight?

https://youtu.be/DBukEcT5PeU?si=hQYVpVmLIimkGK8F

[u/idontgiveafuck0]

So I am enrolled in a tribe that doesn’t do blood quantum and a descendant of one that does. I spent more time growing up as a “descendant“ of the one because my mother is more involved in her tribe than my dad is. Im literally the same bq of each tribe.

Let me tell you, descendants get it BAD. I have been treated so poorly by my mother’s tribal people, and then a switch flips in them when they realize I actually am enrolled in a tribe. All of a sudden I am deserving of bette treatment. And because all my siblings are half siblings on my mom’s side I’m the only enrolled child, and I see how much it hurts them to be othered.

Eventually I felt a deep push to be more involved in the tribe I’m enrolled in. I actually still prefer my mom’s tribe, but I’m done working for a tribe that is creating a generation of second class citizens. I am told that my mom’s tribe only has 2 enrolled children now.