Description: Implementing many of the most cutting-edge trends in contemporary indigenous studies, these seventeen original essays tackle indigenous identity, cultural perseverance, economic development, and urbanization in a wide array of American Indian and First Nations populations. The authors present and preserve indigenous voices and carefully consider native worldviews throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, and also address mainstream policies that influenced Native peoples in various eras and locales.The essays range from the specific--single peoples living in well-defined spaces during discrete time periods, to the expansive--broad comparative and international discussions. Yet the volume's diversity extends beyond its topical breadth. The contributors themselves--many of whom are Native Americans or members of other First Nations--peer through scholarly lenses polished in Canada, Denmark, Finland, England, Sweden, and the United States. The ensuing synthesis helps to clarify the modern complexities of analyzing indigenous pasts.
Brief description: John R. Wunder, professor of history and journalism at the University of Nebraska, is a leading scholar of the American West and the American legal system. He is the author of five books and the editor of the multivolume Native Americans and the Law: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives on American Indian rights, Freedoms, and Sovereignty as well as series editor for TTUP's Plains Histories. He lives in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Review Quotes: Since the 1960s, writing on First Nations and Native American history has expanded worldwide, and also beyond history, bringing in elements of anthropology, media studies, sociology, and area and cultural studies.... Native scholars have not only enriched the field by their own insights but also probably compelled non-natives to include new dimensions to their approaches. -- Markku Henricksson