Crooked Paths to Allotment - by C Joseph Genetin-Pilawa (Paperback)

About the Book

Crooked Paths to Allotment: The Fight over Federal Indian Policy after the Civil War

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

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

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

[This book] succeeds admirably in questioning the inevitability of coerced assimilation after the Civil War. It serves as an important reminder that there were viable, potentially less destructive paths not taken in the quest to resolve the 'Indian problem.'--Utah Historical Quarterly

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

Exhibiting an impressive depth of primary research and utilizing a number of sparsely consulted archival collections, Crooked Paths to Allotment is a useful contribution to the historiography of American Indian policy.--Kansas History

Genetin-Pilawa shows how federal Indian relations have reflected and, at times, driven U.S. policy creation in general, and state development and bureaucratization in particular.--Great Plains Quarterly

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

Tells a significant story.--Tribal College Journal

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