MELISSA L MEYER

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Office: 6296 BUNCHE Hall
Phone: 310-825-4153
Fax: 310-206-9630
E-mail: meyer@history.ucla.edu

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Field

United States, History of American Indians

Research Interests

Born of German, Scotch-Irish, and Eastern Cherokee stock, Melissa L. Meyer typifies the ethnic background of many Cincinnatians descended from German and Appalachian immigrants. Her spark of interest in American Indian History originated here and was fanned into open flames by her critique of American society as a child of the '60s. She is (hopefully) wiser now and has matured into a fully-evolved social historian with tolerance neither for the romanticism that plagues those interested in American Indian Studies nor for post-modern discourse of any kind.
Her current research interests center on issues of American Indian identity--particularly on "blood quantum" requirements for tribal enrollment and recognition as American Indians, and on intermarriage and the historical experiences of individuals of mixed descent. She is tracing the history of tribal enrollment, a policy originated by the colonial U.S. government, but maintained by most tribes. Within the context of this larger study, she is exploring how "blood," which has nothing to do with heredity, came to be associated metaphorically with transmitting the essential qualities of the group. She has recently published, "American Indian Blood Quantum Requirements: Blood is Thicker Than Family," in Valerie Matsumoto and Blake Allmendinger, ed., Over the Edge: Remapping the American West (Berkeley: UC Press, 1999).

With Kerwin Lee Klein, she has reviewed the status of Native American Studies in regard to "History, Anthropology and The End of Ethnohistory," in Russell Thornton, ed. Studying Native America: Problems and Prospectives (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999).

Her publications include: The White Earth Tragedy: Ethnicity and Dispossession at a Minnesota Anishinaabe Reservations, 1889-1920 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994); "'We Can no Get a Living as We Used To': Dispossession and the White Earth Anishinaabeg, 1889-1920," The American Historical Review 96 (1991); "Signatures and Thumbprints: Ethnicity among the White Earth Anishinaabeg, 1889-1920," Social Science History 14 (1990); as well as book chapters, edited volumes, and book and exhibit reviews. She is also trained in museology and has contributed to a permanent exhibit scheduled to open at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History.

She teaches a two quarter survey of American Indian History, and specialized courses dealing with sources, methods, and interpretation in American Indian history, the interpretation of American Indian autobiographies, contemporary American Indian issues in historical perspective, ethnohistoric methods, American Indian social history, and interdisciplinary methods in history.

Selected Publications

The White Earth Tragedy: Ethnicity and Dispossession at a Minnesota Anishinaabe Reservations, 1889-1920 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994);

"'We Can no Get a Living as We Used To': Dispossession and the White Earth Anishinaabeg, 1889-1920," The American Historical Review 96 (1991);

"Signatures and Thumbprints: Ethnicityamong the White Earth Anishinaabeg, 1889-1920," Social Science History 14 (1990);

"American Indian Blood Quantum Requirements: Blood is Thicker Than Family," in Valerie Matsumoto and Blake Allmendinger, ed., Over the Edge: Remapping the American West (Berkeley: UC Press, 1999).

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