Crooked Paths to Allotment

The Fight over Federal Indian Policy after the Civil War

By C. Joseph Genetin-Pilawa

248 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 10 halftones, notes, bibl., index

  • Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-1751-0
    Published: August 2014
  • E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-0-8078-3741-2
    Published: October 2012
  • E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-8549-4
    Published: October 2012

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Standard narratives of Native American history view the nineteenth century in terms of steadily declining Indigenous sovereignty, from removal of southeastern tribes to the 1887 General Allotment Act. In Crooked Paths to Allotment, C. Joseph Genetin-Pilawa complicates these narratives, focusing on political moments when viable alternatives to federal assimilation policies arose. In these moments, Native American reformers and their white allies challenged coercive practices and offered visions for policies that might have allowed Indigenous nations to adapt at their own pace and on their own terms. Examining the contests over Indian policy from Reconstruction through the Gilded Age, Genetin-Pilawa reveals the contingent state of American settler colonialism.

Genetin-Pilawa focuses on reformers and activists, including Tonawanda Seneca Ely S. Parker and Council Fire editor Thomas A. Bland, whose contributions to Indian policy debates have heretofore been underappreciated. He reveals how these men and their allies opposed such policies as forced land allotment, the elimination of traditional cultural practices, mandatory boarding school education for Indian youth, and compulsory participation in the market economy. Although the mainstream supporters of assimilation successfully repressed these efforts, the ideas and policy frameworks they espoused established a tradition of dissent against disruptive colonial governance.

Sponsored by First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies

About the Author

C. Joseph Genetin-Pilawa is assistant professor of history at Illinois College.
For more information about C. Joseph Genetin-Pilawa, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

"Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty."--Choice

"Well-written and well researched, this book . . . is a welcomed addition to the scholarship."--Journal of American History

"Crooked Paths to Allotment deepens our understanding of late nineteenth-century Indian policy…[and] makes thought-provoking observations about how some reformist positions in Indian policy fitted within--and to some extent anticipated--the broader development of a more active federal government role in promoting social welfare."--American Historical Review

“A well-written, eight-chapter work that portrays 'Crooked Paths to Allotment' from a general portrayal of federal policies.”--Ethnohistory

“[A] useful addition to the history of Indian-white relations in the United States.”--North Carolina Historical Review

"Crooked Paths to Allotment deepens our understanding of late nineteenth-century Indian policy. . . . The author makes thought-provoking observations about how some reformist positions on Indian policy fitted within. . . the broader development of a more active federal government role in promoting social welfare."--American Historical Review