These People Have Always Been a Republic: Indigenous Electorates in the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands, 1598–1912 by Maurice Crandall

Abstract

Reviewed by: These People Have Always Been a Republic: Indigenous Electorates in the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands, 1598–1912 by Maurice Crandall Flannery Burke These People Have Always Been a Republic: Indigenous Electorates in the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands, 1598–1912. By Maurice Crandall. ( Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019. Pp. 384. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.) These People Have Always Been a Republic is an ambitious, comprehensive account of the long history of Pueblo, Hopi, Yaqui, and O'odham electorates in what is now northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. The book is also a bold argument advocating that historians use a different frame to understand democracy. Historians of the United States pride themselves on their thorough explorations of democracy and its origins. Crandall asks that scholars widen their view. "The Anglo-American tendency to look from east to west, against which Herbert Eugene Bolton battled so long, persists to the present day" (5), he observes. Crandall reminds [End Page 99] us that democracy is not a possession of the United States. He does so by neither ignoring nor centering colonialism. Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. colonists are powerful figures in Crandall's narrative, but they are not the protagonists. Drawing on hemispheric historiography, Crandall argues persuasively and emphatically that the constant in electoral activity in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands "was the desire by Pueblos, Hopis, Yaquis, and Tohono O'odhams to protect their rights as sovereign Native Nations" (289). Pueblos, Hopis, Yaquis, and Tohono O'odhams are the key agents in Crandall's narrative even when they are not visibly active. Indeed, one of Crandall's key insights is that voting—perhaps the most visible element of electoral activity—could be both a tool of colonialism and a tool of independence. O'odhams who refused U.S. citizenship and enfranchisement baffled even those U.S. officials who considered themselves Indigenous allies, but Indigenous electorates closely guarded their community decisions from the eyes of outsiders, not out of a dedication to secrecy per se, but out of a commitment to their own freedom to make decisions for themselves. As such secrecy indicates, voting (or not voting) for particular leaders was just one of the ways that Indigenous electorates protected their sovereignty. Hybridized forms of Indigenous government also addressed independent religious practice; the return of women and children stolen from their communities; service on juries and in the military; the location, delivery, and content of education for Indigenous children; responses to internal instances of violence; and, always passionately, the potential alienation of tribal land. Indigenous electors responded to these issues within the constraints and legacies of Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. colonialism, but they did so by preserving and adapting their own democratic practices toward the end of community perseverance. Colonization "neither destroyed nor replaced Indigenous forms of democracy traditionally rooted in concepts of consensus, dialogue, persuasion, and the power of words" (6). Indeed, in the Pueblos' case, they continued to practice their own democratic traditions during Spanish colonization even when their Spanish neighbors held no rights to do the same. Crandall's narrative addresses abstract concepts: democracy, the franchise, and independence, but it is also filled with human and material stories. In the Cantón Rebellion of 1837, Pueblo Indians briefly led "the most inclusive government New Mexico has ever seen—past or present" (133). In 1848, a Hopi woman and several Hopi children were returned to Oraibi after Mexicans brutally took them captive and sold them as genízaros because Hopi leadership pleaded with Mexican officials for their return. Yaqui leaders reminded themselves of their obligations with the oath "the sierra does not have a voice, but you do" (81). Historians presently observe some of the most significant challenges to U.S. democracy in the nation's history. They would benefit from broad studies of democracies [End Page 100] that heed the insights and concerns of Indigenous electorates. U.S. democracy itself could benefit as well. Flannery Burke Saint Louis University Copyright © 2021 The Texas State Historical Association