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Summary Of Blood Quantum By Wolf Wolfe

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Wolfe discusses the evolution of the methods used by European colonists to eliminate the Native Americans and take control and settle in their lands. He plots the shifting course of the strategies used to incorporate Indians into US society, going in chronological order. He starts by discussing Indian Removal becoming obsolete. He then describes the system of allotment, where Indians were given individuals plots of land to farm and manage. Finally, Wolfe discusses Blood Quantum, the method of evaluating one’s “Indian-ness.” In the conclusion, he argues that Indian reservations and land rights were achievements earned by the Indians through anticolonial resistance, and that, despite the American’s attempts over three centuries to fully assimilate and erase the Indians, they have been able to hold on to their culture and identity. …show more content…

Indian removal was the fastest, most efficient, and most effective way of relocating the Native Americans and settling in their land. “With Andrew Jackson as president, Congress passed federal removal legislation in 1830. By the end of the 1830s, the Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee peoples had been removed west of the Mississippi…” (Wolfe 17) The Louisiana Purchase opened the door for Americans to settle beyond the Mississippi river, and the Civil War indirectly resulted in rapid industrialization and military advancement. These accelerated westward expansion, and soon there was little land to relocate Indians into, and Indian removal became altogether obsolete. This necessitated other methods of eliminating the native population, and so the US government turned to allotment, and eventually, blood

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