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.
Beyond Blood Quantum: Refusal to Disappear
Norbert S. Hill Jr., 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. Previous positions include executive director of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, assistant dean of students at the University of Wisconsin—Green bay, and director of the American Indian Winds of Change and The American Indian Graduate, magazine publications of AISES and AIGC respectively. Hill holds an honorary doctorate from both Clarkson University (1996) and Cumberland College (1994). Past board appointments include Environmental Defense Fund, chair and board member of the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, and the Wisconsin Historical Society. In 1989, Hill was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering.
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. Founded in 1998, the awards program spotlights tribal government programs and initiatives that are especially effective in addressing critical concerns and challenges facing the more than 570 Indian nations and their citizens.
Megan currently serves on the boards of the Native Governance Center and the Dr. Rosa Minoka Hill Fund. She is active within the Harvard community and is a member of the NAGPRA Advisory Committee for the Peabody Museum. Previously, she worked as Director of Development at both the University of New Mexico and Arizona State University and as a Senior Program Officer for the Institute of American Indian Arts. Megan graduated from the University of Chicago with a Master of Arts Degree in the Social Sciences and earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs and Economics from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
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. Desirae holds a technical degree in Visual Communications and is a candidate for a MSM and MBA at the University of Illinois—Urbana Champaign. She is a certified facilitator of yoga and is learning how to grow corn with her family in Oneida, Wisconsin, as a member of Ohe·láku (Among the Cornstalks).
