Blood Quanta

Historically, a number of tribes practiced the adoption of captives into their group to replace tribe members who had been killed in battle or captured. These captives came from rival tribes and later also from European settlers. 

Bands or entire tribes occasionally split or merged to form viable groups in reaction to the pressures of climate, disease and warfare. Some tribes also sheltered or adopted white traders and blacks, both runaway slaves and Native American-owned slaves. So a number of paths to genetic mixing existed.

However, to qualify for recognition and assistance from the U.S. federal government or for tribal money and services, American Indians have not only to belong to a recognized tribal entity but also to qualify as members of that entity. This has taken a number of different forms as each tribal government makes its own rules while the federal government has separate standards in some areas as well. 

In many cases, this is based on the percentage of American Indian blood, or the "blood quanta". This has led to a number of disputes as groups are disallowed or membership restricted, sometimes in disputes over tribal casino income. Some tribes have even begun requiring genetic genealogy (DNA testing).

Requirements vary widely: the Cherokee require only a descent from an Native American listed on the early 20th century Dawes Rolls while federal scholarships require enrollment in a federally recognized tribe as well as a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood card showing at least a one-quarter Native American descent. Tribal rules regarding recognition of members with Native American blood from multiple tribes are equally diverse and complex.

Tribal membership conflicts have led to a number of activist groups, legal disputes and even court cases. One example is the Cherokee freedmen, descendants of slaves owned by the Cherokees. The Cherokees had allied with the Confederate States of America in the Civil War and, after the war, were forced by the federal government in an 1866 treaty to free their slaves and make them citizens. T

hey were later disallowed as tribe members due to their not having "Indian blood". However, in March 2006, the Judicial Appeals Tribunal — the Cherokee Nation's highest court — ruled that Cherokee freedmen are full citizens of the Cherokee Nation. The court declared that the Cherokee freedmen retain citizenship, voting rights and other privileges despite attempts to keep them off the tribal rolls for not having identifiable "Indian" blood.

"American Indian princesses"

In the 20th century, among white ethnic groups, it was popular to claim descent from an "American Indian princess", often a Cherokee. The prototypical "American Indian princess" was Pocahontas, and, in fact, descent from her is a frequent claim. However, the American Indian "princess" is a false concept, derived from the application of European concepts to American Indians, as also seen in the naming of war chiefs as "kings". Descent from "Indian braves" is also claimed.

This "safe" descent from American Indians was seen as fashionable not only among whites claiming prestigious colonial descent but also among whites seeking to claim connection to groups with distinct folkways that would differentiate them from the mass culture. 

Large influxes of recent immigrants with unique social customs may have been partially an object of envy. Among African-Americans, the desire to be un-black was sometimes expressed in claims of Native American descent. Those passing as white might use the slightly more acceptable American Indian ancestry to explain inconvenient details. 

In the PBS program "African American Lives", Oprah Winfrey described childhood taunting where being American Indian was preferable to being all black. Genetic tests done for the program showed that she and Chris Tucker had American Indian ancestors.

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