Beyond Blood Quantum: Refusal to Disappear
Forthcoming: March 18, 2025
In the second volume of The Great Vanishing Act, voices from Indian Country convey the insidious impacts of the Indian Reorganization Act confronting the existential and pragmatic questions facing many Native Nations to determine who is—and who is not—a citizen. The voices of poets, parents, academics, activists, educators, young adults, and elders prompt conversations in consideration of shared cultural values and lived realities outside of the limited confines of blood quantum.
Both informational and poetic, Beyond Blood Quantum: Refusal to Disappear is a guide for conversation in-community and a songline of voices grappling with contemporary Native identity and the sovereignty inherent in defining citizenship with analysis softened by appreciation for kin, land, and promises to future generations from the descendants of generations who continue to resist—who refuse to disappear.
The Great Vanishing Act: Blood Quantum and the Future of Native Nations
The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 was the US government’s attempt to define who “Indians” were. Among the criteria the act set was a blood quantum, which declared that “Indians” were “all other persons of one-half or more Indian blood.” Today, many tribes wrestle with the legacy of blood quantum and “Indian” identity, as they work to manage tribal enrollment and social services. As the bloodlines grow increasingly diluted, within a few generations, recognized tribes might legally disappear.
Through essays, personal stories, case studies, satire, and poetry, The Great Vanishing Act: Blood Quantum and the Future of Native Nations, brings together writers from around the world to explore the biological and cultural metaphor of blood quantum, the most critical issue facing Indigenous populations in the twenty-first century.