'Designed to Divide: Understanding Blood Quantum' Ka Wai Ola News

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Designed to Divide: Understanding Blood Quantum

'Blood quantum is an unscientific western construct without substance or merit.'

Shared by Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News

By Puanani Fernandez-Akamine

In her influential book, Nānā i ke Kumu, preeminent 20th century Native Hawaiian scholar Mary Kawena Pukui wrote: “Members of the ʻohana, like taro shoots, are all from the same root. With Hawaiians, family consciousness of the same ʻroot of origin’ was a deeply felt, unifying force, no matter how many offshoots came from offshoots.”

Blood quantum emerged as a way to measure ʻIndian-ness’ through a construct of race. So that over time, Indians would literally breed themselves out and rid the federal government of their legal duties to uphold treaty obligations,” explained Dr. Elizabeth Rule (Chickasaw) an assistant professor at American University in a 2018 NPR interview.

Read the article at Ka Wai Ola newspaper:

https://kawaiola.news/cover/designed-to-divide-understanding-blood-quantum/

Puanani Fernandez-Akamine
Puanani Fernandez-Akamine is the editor of Ka Wai Ola newspaper and a multiple award-winning writer. Before joining OHA in 2019, she worked for Kamehameha Schools. She is driven to help our lāhui tell their stories in their own words to inform, uplift and inspire. She cares deeply about social justice, Indigenous sovereignty, aloha ʻāina and animal welfare. Puanani lives in the ʻāina momona of Kahaluʻu, Oʻahu, with her extended ʻohana. Aloha Ke Akua. Aloha kekahi i kekahi.