Blood will tell : native americans and assimilation policy / Katherine Ellinghaus.

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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.

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CHOICE Review

"How much Indian are you?" Historian Ellinghaus (Univ. of Melbourne, Australia) explains why this question is fraught with meaning. Although focused on the period from the 1887 Allotment Act to the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, her book reveals the culturally embedded belief that blood conveys culture and mixed parentage meant less Indianness. She identifies three US tropes of blood: an assumption that Indians infused with white blood were superior to childlike full bloods; the idea that full bloods were more Indian than mixed-bloods, and therefore more deserving; and that any amount of African American blood made Indians and whites alike into African Americans. Case studies of White Earth Chippewa allotments, the tribes of the Five Civilized Tribes, the decisions of the Competency Commission, and the application of the Racial Integrity Act to Virginia Native Americans demonstrate how blood tropes reduced the number of American Indians, dispossessed Indians, and made racism public policy. Ironically, blood definitions of Indian became law only in 1934, but the ideas of blood had long usage by Americans. Blood as culture continues to affect American Indian policies and tribal governments, despite its inherent fallacy. For race and culture studies. Summing Up: Recommended. Most levels/libraries. --Gregory Omer Gagnon, Loyola University of New Orleans College of Law