January 2024 MBR The Native American Studies Shelf

The Native American Studies Shelf

Our Way
Julie Cajune
Fulcrum Publishing
www.fulcrumbooks.com
9781682753323, $29.95, PB, 456pp

https://www.amazon.com/Our-Way-Parallel-Anthology-Reflection/dp/1682753328

Synopsis: Indigenous history is American history and, compiled and edited by Julie Cajune, "Our Way: A Parallel History" is an anthology of Native American history, reflection, and story that dispels the myths, stereotypes, and absence of information about American Indian, Native Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian people as previously undervalued and obscured part of US history.

For most of American history, stories of the country's Indigenous Peoples were either ignored or told by outsiders. "Our Way: A Parallel History" corrects these errors, exploring the ways in which Indigenous cultures from every corner of the nation have influenced American society from the past into the present, reminding the reader that they have both shaped the US and continue to play a vital role in its story.

Significantly, "Our Way: A Parallel History" is a collaboration of Native scholars representing more than ten Indigenous nations, sharing their histories and their cultures. Each contributor, either an affiliate of an institution of higher education or a prominent Native leader, provides the reader with an inside account of tribal culture and heritage. The result is a comprehensive resource restoring the histories of Indigenous Peoples and their nations to their rightful place in the story of America.

Critique: Addressing such issues as: The Doctrine of Discovery; Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act; US American Indian Policy and Civil rights ; Blood Quantum; The Selling of Hawaii; and so much more, Julie Cajune succeeds in her aspiration that "Our Way: A Parallel History" is has been impressively successful in (as she notes in her preface): "I believe this collection of history, story, and reflection provokes and invites us to think and feel deeply about what it means for all of us to be human in our communities, nations, and beyond. After all, that is what a good story does." Simply stated, "Our Way: A Parallel History: An Anthology of Native History, Reflection, and Story" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Native American History & Issues collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, Native Rights political activists, governmental Indian Affairs policy makers, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Our Way: A Parallel History" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $22.49).

Editorial Note: Julie Cajune (https://montanatribes.org/julie-cajune) is a Milken Education Award recipient, and the coordinator of the tribal history project at the Salish-Kootenai College in Pablo, Montana, and previously served as Indian Education Coordinator for the Ronan Public Schools on the Flathead Indian Reservation. She served as Executive Producer for Heart of The Bitterroot, a DVD focused on the lives of Salish and Pend d'Oreille women. In addition to discussing the goals and accomplishments of the history project, Julie Cajune sheds light on the 1855 Hellgate Treaty negotiations as well as more contemporary issues related to federal policies and implementing Indian Education for All.

First Peoples of Great Salt Lake
Steven R. Simms
The University of Utah Press
www.uofupress.com
9781647691479, $80.00, HC, 242pp

https://www.amazon.com/First-Peoples-Great-Salt-Lake/dp/1647691478

Synopsis: Utah's Great Salt Lake is a celebrated, world-recognized and unique natural landmark. What is not so widely known is that the Great Salt Lake (and the broader region bound to it), is also a thoroughly cultural landscape; generations of peoples made their lives there.

With the publication of "First Peoples of Great Salt Lake: A Cultural Landscape from Nevada to Wyoming", and with an eminently readable narrative, Professor Steven Simms (who is one of the foremost archaeologists of the region), traces the scope of human history dating from the Pleistocene, when First Peoples interacted with the lapping waters of Lake Bonneville, to nearly the present day. Through vivid descriptions of how people lived, migrated, and mingled, with persistence and resilience, Simms honors the long human presence on the landscape.

It will be noted that with "First Peoples of Great Salt Lake", Professor Simms takes a different approach to understanding the ancients than is typical of archaeology. De-emphasizing categories and labels, Professor Simms traces changing environments, climates, and peoples through the notion of place. He challenges the "Pristine Myth" -- that the cultural bias that Indigenous peoples were timeless, changeless, primitive, and the landscapes they lived in sparsely populated and perpetually pristine.

It is revealed that the First Peoples and their descendants modified the forests and the understory vegetation (the shrubs and plants growing beneath the main canopy of a forest), shaped wildlife populations, and adapted to long-term climate change.

The Native Americans of Great Salt Lake were very much part of their natural world, and their history is one of long continuity through dramatic cultural change.

Critique: Informatively enhanced with the inclusion of a twenty-six page listing of References, twenty pages of Notes, and a ten page Index, this large format (8.5 x 0.71 x 10 inches, 2 pounds) hard cover edition of "First Peoples of Great Salt Lake: A Cultural Landscape from Nevada to Wyoming" by Professor Steven R. Simms is part of the Utah Series on Great Salt Lake and the Great Basin from the University of Utah Press. Nicely illustrated throughout, and an inherently interesting and revealing study, "First Peoples of Great Salt Lake" is an impressive work of seminal scholarship and highly recommended for personal, professional, and college/university library Native American History collections, and supplemental Native American Anthropology curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, and non- specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "First Peoples of Great Salt Lake' is also available in a paperback edition (9781647691370, $34.95).

Editorial Note: Steven R. Simms is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Utah State University. His books include Ancient Peoples of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau (2008), and Traces of Fremont: Society and Rock Art in Ancient Utah (2010) awarded the Society for American Archaeology Book Award in the public audience category and the Utah Book Award for nonfiction. He has also directed over 60 archaeological projects, including the Great Salt Lake Wetlands Project 1990 - 93, funded by the state of Utah, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and the National Science Foundation. (https://chass.usu.edu/anthropology/directory/simms-steven)

Indigenous Borderlands
Joaquin Rivaya-Martinez, editor
University of Oklahoma Press
www.oupress.com
9780806191836, $90.00, HC, 364pp

https://www.amazon.com/Indigenous-Borderlands-Native-Resilience-Americas/dp/080619183X

Synopsis: With the publication of "Indigenous Borderlands: Native Agency, Resilience, and Power in the Americas", pervasive myths of European domination and indigenous submission in the Americas receive a long overdue corrective in this far-reaching revisionary work.

Despite initial upheavals caused by the European intrusion, Native people often thrived after contact, preserving their sovereignty, territory, and culture and shaping indigenous borderlands across the hemisphere. Borderlands, in this context, are spaces where diverse populations interact, cross-cultural exchanges are frequent and consequential, and no polity or community holds dominion.

Within the indigenous borderlands of the Americas, as this volume shows, Native peoples exercised considerable power, often retaining control of the land, and remaining paramount agents of historical transformation after the European incursion. Conversely, European conquest and colonialism were typically slow and incomplete, as the newcomers struggled to assert their authority and implement policies designed to subjugate Native societies and change their beliefs and practices.

"Indigenous Borderlands" covers a wide chronological and geographical span, from the sixteenth-century U.S. South to twentieth-century Bolivia, and gathers leading scholars from the United States and Latin America. Drawing on previously untapped or underutilized primary sources, the original essays in this volume document the resilience and relative success of indigenous communities commonly and wrongly thought to have been subordinated by colonial forces, or even vanished, as well as the persistence of indigenous borderlands within territories claimed by people of European descent. Indeed, numerous indigenous groups remain culturally distinct and politically autonomous.

Hemispheric in its scope, unique in its approach, "Indigenous Borderlands" significantly recasts our understanding of the important roles played by Native agents in constructing indigenous borderlands in the era of European imperialism.

Critique: Compiled and edited by Joaquin Rivaya-Martinez, "Indigenous Borderlands: Native Agency, Resilience, and Power in the Americas" is comprised of eleven erudite and informative articles by experts in their field. Indigenous Borderlands" is further enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of Illustrations, a Bibliography, a complete listing of the contributors and their credentials, and a sixteen page Index. While strongly recommended as a core pick for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Native American History collections and supplemental Cultural Anthropology curriculum studies lists, it should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Indigenous Borderlands" is also available in a paperback edition (9780806191935, $29.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $24.95).

Editorial Note: Joaquin Rivaya-Martinez is Associate Professor of History at Texas State University. He has authored numerous essays on Comanche history and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. (https://www.tshaonline.org/about/people/joaquin-rivaya-martinez)

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