The federal government and most tribes use some form of blood quantum measurement. Such measures are commonly used, although biological heritage is clearly not synonymous with any level of cultural connection. When the practice of defining Native identity by blood quantum is combined with the highest rate of intermarriage of any group (75 percent), Native people seem to be on a course of irreversible absorption into the larger U.S. society. Scholars such as Jaimes and Rose suggest that the federal government has an interest in the statistical extermination of indigenous people, thereby leading to an end to treaty and trust responsibilities.
-from Indigenous Identity What is it, and Who really has it? by Hilary N. Weaver
American Indian Quarterly/Spring 2001/Vol.25, No.2 page 248
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