Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations by Charles Wilkinson

Abstract

of themost important recent scholarship on related subjects, carefully integrating it into the story that he tells. While the first couple of chapters regarding Mather andMt. Rainier National Park may seem overly familiar and long, the restof the book is a nice corrective of the literature.Readers will enjoy theways inwhich various interests,as well as an NPS much more devoted towilderness, inevitably thought about automobiles as theyput forth policy objectives. Scholarswill certainlybenefit from theprecision ofLouter's discussions, and readers interested in the intersectionbetween bureaucracy, environment, and wilderness advocacy will find thisbook invaluable. Lawrence M. Lipin Pacific University BLOOD STRUGGLE: THE RISE OF MODERN INDIAN NATIONS byCharles Wilkinson W.W. Norton, New York, 2005. Photographs, maps, tables, notes, index. 558 pages. $15.95 paper. "We are stillhere." This is themessage that American Indian tribesand Indian people are delivering today. It isalso the theme ofCharles Wilkinson's excellentnew book, Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern IndianNations. Echoing the slogan of the 1960sCivil Rights movement "we shall overcome," modern-day Indian nations and peoples are proudly pro claiming their continued existence: "We are stillhere." This is an importantmessage for tribestodelivernow because, as Wilkinson says, "for more than 500 years,white societyon this continent has discussed how long it would be before Indian people finallydisappeared into the general society.Not if, butwhen" (p. 383). This tribal message was emphasized by the citizens and governments of forty-one Indian nations who chose to be officially involved in the recentLewis and Clark Bicentennial Com memoration. They did so not to celebrate the American saga of Lewis and Clark, but to tell their own tribal histories and stories, and to forceAmericans to recognize that Indians and theircultures and governments have survived thearrivalof the United States ? as personified byLewis and Clark?and theassimilation and extermination policies ofAmerican Manifest Destiny. Wilkinson recounts in a detailed and excit ing fashion theproud storyof tribal survival despite nineteenth- and twentieth-century policies thatwere designed to terminate the political existence of Indian governments and to assimilate Indian people into themajor itysociety.Using well-told stories, Wilkinson describes the resurgence of Indian nations, who have exercised theirown sovereigntyand jurisdiction since what he calls the "deaden ing years" of the 1950s Termination Era of federal Indian policy (p. 90). He introduced termination policy thisway: "The middle of the twentieth century... marked the all-time low for tribal existence on this continent. American Indians faced fouroverbearing and seemingly intractable problems. First, they were mired in theworst economic and social conditions of any group inAmerica_Sec ond, Indians suffereda relentlesspolitical op pression atmid-century. The Bureau of Indian Affairs controlled the reservationwith an iron grip_Third,... the BIA and the churches ran a concerted campaign to suppress tribal religions and traditions and "Christianize" Native Americans_Then, on August 1,1953, Congress tightened the screws by activating themost extreme Indian program in history. House Concurrent Resolution 108 officially announced the termination policy, a "final solution" thatwould lead to a sell-offof tribal lands, the withdrawal of all federalsupport,and therapid assimilation of Indian people into the majority society (pp. xii-xiii)." Wilkinson argues that the Termination Era, from the mid 1940s to the early 1960s,was designed to end the existence of tribalgovern ments. But he thenrecounts inspiringstoriesof how individual Indians, theirgovernments,and 138 OHQ vol. 108, no. 1 theirpolitical leaders protected and restored tribalpowers and sovereigntyover theirown lands, peoples, and assets.Wilkinson high lightsthe exploits ofmany individual Indians and tribal leaders, showing readers how those courageous people protected theirhuman and political rightsand created today's strongand increasingly stronger tribal governments and institutions.He demonstrates, for example, how individual and tribal actions brought the Menominee Nation and people fromWis consin and the SiletzNation and people from Oregon back from termination to restoration as federallyrecognized governments.He shows how other tribesand individual Indian people ? such as Lucy Covington of theColville Na tionfrom Washington and elsewhere ? fended offfederalpolicies designed to terminate their governments. He also recounts tribal victories in state elections and courts that protected important tribal interests in South Dakota, California, and other states. And he proves how the development of strong and viable tribal governments ? such as at the Warm Springs Reservation inOregon ? have improved the lives of individual Indians...