Description

In the United States, blood quantum (BQ) based enrollment criteria find their roots in settler-colonial policies to erase, assimilate, and subjugate Indigenous Peoples and individuals, dating back centuries. Understanding the colonial beginnings, Native Nations throughout the United States continue to have fiery debates over the validity of BQ based enrollment laws. Academics in social sciences have examined the formation of Indigenous identity at the community and population level, but this has not translated to health science research. Current scales and tools do not incorporate the effects of BQ based enrollment on identity at the individual level. Native people’s self-identity includes their status as an enrolled or unenrolled member of their tribe. This talk will discuss how BQ based enrollment criteria negatively impact Native Nations which implement it, utilizing historical examples and lived experiences, and calls on Native Nations and Native researchers to explore the relationship between colonial enrollment policies and the impact on identity formation and lived experiences.