As far as blood quantum goes who knows?
The Scotts-Irish had been intermarrying with the Cherokee since the 1600's
Right. And all the kids who stayed with the white side of the family and assimilated, their generations upon generations of descendants are all
white now. They've grown up white, raised by white parents and grandparents, with full white privilege and totally white culture. Then as adults these folks do their family trees and find a distant ancestor, and they become pretendians. No Native community claims them.
Their comparisons to tribes with no or low-BQ requirements are specious, as those communities, when they are real tribes and not fake ones, are based in culture and kinship. It's a false equivalency. These people with maybe a distant ancestor who assimilated are not culturally Native, and Native people know it. They'll only fool racist and/or ignorant nons with that stuff. Then again, non-Natives
are their community and their marketplace. They do this assuming no NDNs will ever find out about it. They do this assuming that if the white people in their community/marketplace find out real NDNs disapprove, they'll be too racist to care. They prefer pretendians. Because pretendians sell them the romantic fantasies they crave.