In The Gods of Indian Country, Jennifer Graber details the history of American and Kiowa interactions from 1803 to 1903. The book advances two arguments, with the first related to a loose assemblage of American Christians called the “friends of the Indian.” Comprised of missionaries, reformers, educators, and the like, “friends of the Indian” framed their dealings with Native populations as benevolent and peaceful. As Graber reveals, however, this obscured their coercive tactics and willingness to enlist governmental authority to further their aims. The book’s second argument addresses how Kiowas maintained tribal bonds by drawing on their own forms of sacred power. Significantly, Graber states that the Kiowa language had no specific word for religion. Rather, American Christians have often used religion as a tool for classifying themselves above and against non-Christians. Graber, therefore, does not speak of Kiowa religion per se, but instead of how this population developed “ways of interacting with a variety of powerful beings and forces” (12).The book opens in 1803 with the purchase of the Louisiana Territory. While figures like Thomas Jefferson hoped to relocate eastern Native populations here, Kiowas went about their business of building alliances and securing their own prosperity. Fears of Catholic infiltration and promises of wealth fueled an American creep westward that led to outbursts of violence. Onlookers theorized that the “wild tribes” of the southern Great Plains required civilization, a job taken up by the “friends of the Indian.” As early advocates of President Ulysses S. Grant’s Peace Policy, they believed that the example of their Christian missions, schools, and lifestyle would result in assimilation. Later on, as reservation administrators, they used their authority to coerce Kiowas toward conformity by, for example, restricting food rations and suppressing the Sun Dance.Meanwhile, Kiowas suffered from disease, hunger, infant mortality, and other stresses associated with the upending of their way of life. In the Red River War (1874–75), some Kiowas took up the cause of expelling the Americans. Their decisive loss resulted in many Indians from the southern Plains being sent to a military prison in Fort Marion, Florida. There, Captain Richard Pratt leveraged his position to force on prisoners “bodily habits of labor, discipline, and dress” (126). “Friends of the Indian,” cheered Pratt, who continued this work at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.In response to these and other outside pressures, Kiowas continued interacting with sacred objects and rituals. Women made intricately crafted cradleboards for their babies to keep their children close at a time when outside forces disrupted their family lives. The Feather Dance—the Kiowa version of the Ghost Dance—grew in significance alongside peyote rites and affiliations with Christianity, all of which sought to bring about healing, direction, and hope. A Kiowa calendar featured by Graber shows rectangles and squares meant to represent the 1901 land rush on the reservation, enabled by legislation that declared “surplus” territory available to settlers. In 1903, the Supreme Court heard the Kiowa petition, but sided unanimously with the government. The story does not end here, though, as Graber’s epilogue emphasizes that Kiowas continue to sustain their sense of community through a blend of old and new sacred engagements.Graber tells a compelling story, made even more so by a rich array of illustrations of mostly Kiowa artifacts. Matters of historiography and method enrich the endnotes, while the central chapters contain a smoothly narrated account. Undergraduates as well as specialists in Native American history, history of the American West, and religious theory will appreciate this book. Indeed, The Gods of Indian Country is a paradigmatic example of effective storytelling and scholarly expertise.
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Jun 17, 2021
Pedro Oliveira + 1
Open Access