Blood Will Tell: Native Americans and Assimilation Policy

Blood Will Tell: Native Americans and Assimilation Policy by Katherine Ellinghaus

Blood Will Tell: Native Americans and Assimilation Policy

  • Paperback
  • University of Nebraska Press (2022)
  • SKU: 9781496230379
Regular price $25.00
/

Blood Will Tell reveals the underlying centrality of "blood" that shaped official ideas about who was eligible to be defined as Indian by the General Allotment Act in the United States. Katherine Ellinghaus traces the idea of blood quantum and how the concept came to dominate Native identity and national status between 1887 and 1934 and how related exclusionary policies functioned to dispossess Native people of their land. The U.S. government's unspoken assumption at the time was that Natives of mixed descent were undeserving of tribal status and benefits, notwithstanding that Native Americans of mixed descent played crucial roles in the national implementation of allotment policy.

Ellinghaus explores on-the-ground case studies of Anishinaabeg, Arapahos, Cherokees, Eastern Cherokees, Cheyennes, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, Lakotas, Lumbees, Ojibwes, Seminoles, and Virginia tribes. Documented in these cases, the history of blood quantum as a policy reveals assimilation's implications and legacy. The role of blood quantum is integral to understanding how Native Americans came to be one of the most disadvantaged groups in the United States, and it remains a significant part of present-day debates about Indian identity and tribal membership. Blood Will Tell is an important and timely contribution to current political and scholarly debates.

"Katherine Ellinghaus brilliantly traces the uneven practices that produced a powerful discourse of American Indian blood quantum. With sure hand and subtle interpretation, Blood Will Tell offers a compelling new reading of a technology of identity at once complicated and crude." —-Philip J. Deloria

#Notyourprincess: Voices of Native American Women by Lisa Charleyboy & Mary Beth Leatherdale (Editors)
#Notyourprincess: Voices of Native American Women
Lisa Charleyboy & Mary Beth Leatherdale
$12.95
(Re)Generation: The Poetry of Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm by Dallas Hunt
(Re)Generation: The Poetry of Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm
Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm
$18.99
10 Sitka Herring: Learn to Count by Pauline Duncan
10 Sitka Herring: Learn to Count
Pauline Duncan
$12.00
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Charles Mann
$19.00
1493 for Young People: From Columbus's Voyage to Globalization by Charles Mann
1493 for Young People: From Columbus's Voyage to Globalization
Charles Mann
$22.95
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles Mann
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
Charles Mann
$20.00
Recently viewed