He has long been interested in issues associated with the Dawes Act , which broke up the communal reservation lands and assigned plots to individual households . Connected with that was the federal government 's first use of " blood quantum " to define individual membership in tribes , for what became known as the Dawes Rolls . Since re @-@ establishing self @-@ governments , federally recognized tribes have established their own criteria for enrollment as members , often related to descent from recognized historical lists , but less often requiring proofs of blood quantum . Some of his published works address these issues , which he has interpreted as part of the federal government 's policy of genocide against Native Americans .