" Blood is messy when it comes out. inside it runs clean and looks blue in tubes that line our bodies, that split and branch like earth's river systems. Blood is ninety percent water. And like water it must move. Blood must flow, never stray or split or clot or divide -- lose any essential amount of itself while it distributes evenly through our bodies. But blood is messy when it comes out. It dries, and cracks in the air.

Native blood quantum was introduced in 1705 at the Virginia Colony. If you were at least half Native, you didn't have the same rights as white people. Blood quantum and tribal membership qualifications have since been turned over to individual tribes to decide. "

― Tommy Orange