Beyond Blood Quantum: Refusal to Disappear - Paperback

by Norbert S. Hill (Editor), Megan M. Hill (Editor), Desirae Louise Hill (Editor)

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.

Author Biography

Norbert Hill, Oneida, is the former Area Director of Education and training for the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. Hill' s previous appointment was Vice President of the College of Menominee Nation for the Green Bay campus. Hill served as the executive director of the American Indian Graduate Center (AIGC) in New Mexico, a nonprofit organization providing funding for American Indians and Alaska Natives to pursue graduate and professional degrees. Megan M. Hill is the Senior Director of the Project on Indigenous Governance and Development and the Director of the Honoring Nations program at the Harvard Kennedy School. The core mission of the Project is to arm Indigenous people with the tools needed to (re)build their nations and govern effectively through research, teaching, leadership development, policy analysis, and pro bono advising for and with Native nations and communities. Its flagship program, Honoring Nations, is a national awards program that identifies, celebrates, and shares outstanding examples of tribal governance. Desirae Louise Hill (she/her) is the co-founder and managing creative director and strategist at Three Track Mind-- a design studio and consultancy supporting startups, small businesses, and nonprofits doing purposeful work related to the arts, culture, education, environment, and wellness. She is also co-founder of Storywell and editor at Minoka Press. She earned a BA in Business Administration with concentration in marketing while also studying literature at Western Washington University.

Philip J. Deloria, a Dakota descendant, is the son of Vine Deloria Jr. (author of God Is Red). Philip currently serves as the Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History at Harvard University and received his PhD in American Studies from Yale University in 1994. He taught at the Universities of Colorado and Michigan before joining the faculty at Harvard in January 2018. He is the author and co-author of many books and was a long-serving trustee of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI).