Bribed with Our Own Money: Federal Abuse of American Indian Funds in the Termination Era. Chapter 8: The "Mixed-Blood" Utes
Federal policy toward Native American tribal nations in the first half of the 20th century sought to end the government’s legal and political relationship with tribes. A new book by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign history professor David Beck looks at one aspect of termination policy — bribery.
“Bribed With Our Own Money: Federal Abuse of American Indian Funds in the Termination Era” examines how officials coerced tribal nations to accept termination by threatening to withhold money owed them by the federal government. Beck found that such coercion was a government policy, with both Congress and the interior department advocating using the money owed to tribes to force the end of the government’s relationship with them.
A final section of the book, “Lands and Termination,” describes the situations of the Colville Confederated Tribes of Washington and the Mixed-Blood Utes of Utah. Both tribes won lawsuits for compensation for lands taken from them. The Utes’ lawsuit led to a split in the tribe based on amount of Native American blood of individual members. Those of full blood avoided termination by letting the government end its relationship with those of mixed blood.