blood quantum

blood quantum (plural blood quantums or blood quanta)

1. (US, sometimes proscribed, sometimes offensive) The fraction of a person's ancestors, out of their total ancestors, who are documented as full-blooded Native Americans. For instance, a person who has one parent who is a full-blood Native American and one who has no Native ancestry has a blood quantum of 1/2.

Various Native American authors and activists, such as Jill Doerfler, have viewed this term as outdated and offensive and consequently proscribed its usage as a result of its origins in eugenics, colonialism, and white supremacist policies. "Blood quantum" and similar variations appear in a large number of historical laws and treaties designed to harm the livelihoods of Native American communities, such as the Dawes Act which divided Cherokee communal lands into smaller parcels held by individual families; only people with less Cherokee ancestry could sell their lands to buyers. When writing documents focusing on the lived experiences of Native Americans, it is typically advisable to avoid using this term outside of direct quotations in lieu of other phrasings such as "Native American lineage", "indigenous descent", or "Native ancestry" to avoid causing offense as a result of its highly controversial connotations.