The math of blood quantum is straight-forward.

Suppose a tribe has 1,000 enrolled citizens. Let’s assume they are all full-blood for starters, but half the children born are mixed – their other parent either from another tribe or non-Native. Continuing this, after seven generations, 2% will be full-blood, 9% will be half, 23% will be quarter, 31% will be 1/8th, 23% will be 1/16th, and 11% will be less than that. You can see where this going. By the eighth generation, half the tribe will be less than 1/8th. It’s a recipe for what the white man called “extermination.”

Throughout the 20th century, the United States also incarcerated Native people under the guise of mental treatment. Founded in 1902, the Hiawatha Insane Asylum was the first federally funded mental asylum built for that purpose. Many Native Americans ended up there by opposing business interests or arguing with a reservation agent, and it's impossible to know exactly how many people died there.

(907) 312-5085