A Legal History of Blood Quantum in Federal Law To 1935 by Paul Spruhan pg.46

One item that created discussion was the definition of Indian advocated by

Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier, the architect of reorganization.

Collier originally proposed a definition for the IRA that included all those of

Indian descent who were members of recognized tribes, their descendants who

resided on a reservation, and all other Indians of one-quarter or more Indian

blood. However, members of Congress, especially Senator Wheeler of Montana,

objected to the one-quarter standard:

I do not think the government of the United States should go out there and take

a lot of Indians in that are quarter bloods and take them in under this act. If

they are Indians in the half blood then the government should perhaps take them

in, but not unless they are. If you pass it to where they are quarter blood Indians

you are going to have all kinds of people coming in and claiming they are quarter

blood Indians and want to be put on the government rolls, and in my judgement

it should not be done. What we are trying to do is get rid of the Indian problem
rather than to add to it.
Wheeler perpetuated the rhetoric of competency, objecting to those of less than
one-half Indian blood from participating at all, stating that Indians in Montana

and California were "white people" who were "just as capable of handling their
own affairs as any white man in this room."
-A Legal History of Blood Quantum in Federal Indian Law To 1935 by
Paul Spruhan
South Dakota Law Review, Vol.51, No.1, 2006 Pg.46