Class Among American Indians
Books:
Adams, Howard. Prison of Grass: Canada from the Native Point of View. Toronto: New Press,
1975.
“Originally published in 1975, this important book is now back in print in a revised and
updated edition. Since its first publication it has become a classic of revisionist history.
Bringing a Native viewpoint to the settlement of the West, Howard Adam's book shook
its readers. What Native people had to say for themselves was quite different from the
convenient picture of history that even the most sympathetic books by white authors had
presented. Until Adams's book, the cultural, historical, and psychological aspects of
colonialism for Native people had not been explored in depth. In Prison of Grass Adams
objects to the popular historical notion that Natives were warring savages, without
government, seeking to be civilized. He contrasts the official history found in the federal
government's documents with the unpublished history of the Indian and Métis people. In
this new edition Howard Adams brings the latest statistics to bear on his arguments and
provides a new Preface.” – From the Press
Adams, Howard. A Tortured People: The Politics of Colonization. Penticton, B.C.: Theytus
Books, 1995.
“This book grew out of the experiences of life and political struggle under colonization in
Métis and other Aboriginal communities in Canada. It provides a uniquely Aboriginal
socio-political perspective on the effects of colonization on Aboriginal peoples in
Canada. It also presents a fresh outlook on decolonization and contemporary Aboriginal
life and culture. Tortured People explains the deeply rooted issues behind the dramatic
increase in Aboriginal militant action in recent years.” –From the Press
Deloria, Philip. Playing Indian. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
“Moving from the Boston Tea Party to the present, this provocative book explores the
ways non-Indian Americans have acted out their fantasies about Indians in order to
experience national, modern, and personal identities. In this complicated tug-of-war
between imaginings and actions, Indian people have been embraced and rejected,
frequently humiliated and occasionally empowered. The historical anxieties revealed by
Playing Indian continue to haunt Americans -- both Indian and non-Indian -- to this day.”
– From the Press
Erdrich, Louise. Tracks: a novel. New York: Henry Holt, 1988.
“Set in North Dakota at a time in this century when Indian tribes were struggling to keep
what little remained of their lands, Tracks is a tale of passion and deep unrest. Over the
course of ten crucial years, as tribal land and trust between people erode ceaselessly, men
and women are pushed to the brink of their endurance--yet their pride and humor prohibit
surrender. The reader will experience shock and pleasure in encountering a group of
characters that are compelling and rich in their vigor, clarity, and indomitable vitality.” –
From the Press
Erdrich, Louise. The Beet Queen: a novel. New York: Holt, 1986.
“On a spring morning in 1932, young Karl and Mary Adare arrive by boxcar in Argus,
North Dakota. After being orphaned in a most peculiar way, they seek refuge in the
butcher shop of their aunt Fritzie and her husband, Pete; ordinary Mary, who will cause a
miracle, and seductive Karl, who lacks his sister's gift for survival, embark upon an
exhilarating life-journey crowded with colorful, unforgettable characters and marked by
the extraordinary magic of natural events.” –From the Press
Hedge Coke, Allison. Off Season City Pipe. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 2005.
“Drawing on her background as a tobacco sharecropper, factory worker, and
fisherwoman, Hedge Coke fills the void of Native American working-class literature with
poems as vivid in their telling as they are powerful in their ethos. Off-Season City Pipe
lyrically articulates the stark contrast between an ancestry whose strong work ethic,
manual skills, and environmental stewardship defined their communities, but whose
present circumstances have forced so many into impoverished city living, performing
work that fails to provide sustenance for the land or its people.” –From the Press
Hedge Coke, Allision. Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer: A Story of Survival. Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 2004.
“‘A name creates life patterns,’ Allison Adelle Hedge Coke writes, ‘which form and
shape a life; my life, like my name, must have been formed many times over then handed
to me to realize.’ Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer is Hedge Coke’s narrative of that realization,
the award-winning poet and writer’s searching account of her life as a mixed-blood
woman coming of age off-reservation, yet deeply immersed in her Cherokee and Huron
heritage. In a style at once elliptical and achingly clear, Hedge Coke describes her
schizophrenic mother and the abuse that often overshadowed her childhood; the torments
visited upon her, the rape and physical violence; and those she inflicted on herself, the
alcohol and drug abuse. Yet she managed to survive with her dreams and her will, her
sense of wonder and promise undiminished.” –From the Press
Howard, Heather A. Dreamcatchers in the City: An Ethnohistory of Social Action, Gender and
Class in Native Community Production in Toronto. Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada, 2006.
Littlefield, Alice, and Martha Knack, eds., Native Americans and Wage Labor: Ethnohistorical
Perspectives. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.
“Native Americans and Wage Labor: Ethnohistorical Perspectives presents historical
evidence that wage labor was prevalent among Native Americans. In this timely
collection of essays, leading ethnographers and ethnohistorians, as well as innovative
younger scholars, present field and primary historical evidence that wage labor was a
significant American Indian economic adaptation as early as the seventeenth century in
some areas and was common in many U.S. indigenous communities by the late
nineteenth century.” –From the Press
Larson, Sidner J. Captured in the Middle: Tradition and Experience in Contemporary Native
American Writing. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000.
“Sidner Larson's Captured in the Middle embodies the very nature of Indian storytelling,
which is circular, drawing upon the personal experiences of the narrator at every turn.
Larson teaches about contemporary American Indian literature by describing his own
experiences as a child on the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana and as a professor at
the University of Oregon.” –From the Press
Meeks, Eric V. "The Tohono O'odham, Wage Labor and Resistant Adaptation, 1900-1930," in
Border Citizens: The Making of Indians, Mexicans, and Anglos in Arizona. Austin: University of
Texas Press, 2007.
“Borders cut through not just places but also relationships, politics, economics, and
cultures. Eric V. Meeks examines how ethno-racial categories and identities such as
Indian, Mexican, and Anglo crystallized in Arizona's borderlands between 1880 and
1980. South-central Arizona is home to many ethnic groups, including Mexican
Americans, Mexican immigrants, and semi-Hispanicized indigenous groups such as
Yaquis and Tohono O'odham. Kinship and cultural ties between these diverse groups
were altered and ethnic boundaries were deepened by the influx of Euro-Americans, the
development of an industrial economy, and incorporation into the U.S. nation-state.” –
From the Press
O'Neill, Colleen. Working the Navajo Way: Labor and Culture in the Twentieth Century.
Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005.
“The Diné have been a pastoral people for as long as they can remember; but when
livestock reductions in the New Deal era forced many into the labor market, some
scholars felt that Navajo culture would inevitably decline. Although they lost a great deal
with the waning of their sheep-centered economy, Colleen O’Neill argues that Navajo
culture persisted. O’Neill’s book challenges the conventional notion that the introduction
of market capitalism necessarily leads to the destruction of native cultural values. She
shows instead that contact with new markets provided the Navajos with ways to diversify
their household-based survival strategies. Navajos actually participated in the “reworking
of modernity” in their region, weaving an alternate, culturally specific history of capitalist
development.” –From the Press
Owens, Louis. I Hear the Train: reflections, inventions, refractions. Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 2001.
“In this innovative collection, Louis Owens blends autobiography, short fiction, and
literary criticism to reflect on his experiences as a mixedblood Indian in America. In
sophisticated prose, Owens reveals the many timbres of his voice--humor, humility,love,
joy, struggle, confusion, and clarity. We join him in the fields, farms, and ranches of
California. We follow his search for a lost brother and contemplate along with him old
family photographs from Indian Territory and early Oklahoma. In a final section, Owens
reflects on the work and theories of other writers, including Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak,
Gerald Vizenor, Michael Dorris, and Louise Erdrich.” –From the Press
Riley, Patricia. Growing Up Native American: An Anthology. New York: Morrow, 1993.
“Stories of oppression and survival, of heritage denied and reclaimed -- twenty-two
American writers recall childhood in their native land.” –From the Press
Robertson, Paul. The Power of Land: Identity, Ethnicity, and Class among the Oglala Lakota.
New York: Routledge, 2002.
"Paul Robertson brings to this book two strong credentials: meticulous archival research
and two decades of experience living and teaching on the Pine Ridg Reservation. He
documents more thoroughly than any previous author the processes and consequences of
colonialism for the Oglalas and present s a convincing case for the total failure of the BIA
even to attempt to fulfill its trust responsibilities." -- Western Historical Quarterly
Treuer, David. Little. Saint Paul, Minn: Graywolf Press, 1995.
Van Camp, Richard. The Lesser Blessed. Vancouver, B.C.; Berkeley, CA: Douglas & Molntyre,
2004.
Welch, James. The Indian Lawyer. New York: W.W. Norton, 1990.
“Sylvester Yellow Calf is a former reservation basketball star, a promising young lawyer,
and a possible congressional candidate. But when a parolee ensnares him in a blackmail
scheme, he'll have to decide just who he is, and what he wants.” –From the Press
Articles:
LaDuke, Winona. "Ricekeepers: A struggle to protect Biodiversity and a Native American way
of life," Orion Magazine (July/August, 2007). Available online
Mihesuah, Devon. "Too Dark to be Angels": The Class System Among the Cherokees at the
Female Seminary," American Indian Culture and Research Journal, vol. 15 (1991): 29-52.
Perdue, Theda, "The Conflict Within: The Cherokee Power Structure and Removal," in Georgia
Historical Quarterly, vol. 73 (1989), pp. 467-491.
American Indian Culture and Research Journal, vol. 22, No. 3 (1998): Special edition on
Reservation Economies.
 Introduction by Castle McLaughlin and Tracy J. Andrews
 Indian Agriculture, United States Agriculture, and Sustainable Agriculture: Science and
Advocacy by David A. Cleveland
 Crops, Cattle, and Capital: Agrarian Political Ecology in Canyons de Chelly and del
Muerto by Tracy J. Andrews
 Cowboys and Indians: Creek and Seminole Stock Raising, 1700-1900 by Richard A.
Sattler
 Nation, Tribe, and Class: The Dynamics of Agrarian Transformation on the Fort Berthold
Reservation by Castle McLaughlin
American Indian Quarterly, vol 27 no 3 and 4 (Summer/Fall, 2003): Special Issue on Keeping
the Campfires Going: Urban American Indian Women's Activism.
 Preface: Keeping the Campfires Going: Urban American Indian Women's Community
Work and Activism by Susan Applegate Krouse and Heather Howard-Bobiwash
 Introduction by Joan Weibel-Orlando
 Urban Clan Mothers: Key Households in Cities by Susan Lobo
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Gender and Community Organization Leadership in the Chicago Indian Community by
Ann Terry Straus and Debra Valentino
What Came Out of the Takeovers: Women's Activism and the Indian Community School
of Milwaukee by Susan Applegate Krouse
"Assisting our own": Urban Migration, Self-Governance, and Native Women's
Organizing in Thunder Bay, Ontario, 1972-1989 by Nancy Janovicek
Women's Class Strategies as Activism in Native Community Building in Toronto, 19501975 by Howard-Bobiwash, Heather, 1966"How Will I Sew My Baskets?": Women Vendors, Market Art, and Incipient Political
Activism in Anchorage, Alaska by Molly Lee
Their Spirits Live within Us: Aboriginal Women in Downtown Eastside Vancouver
Emerging into Visibility by Dara Culhane
"Let's Get in and Fight!": American Indian Political Activism in an Urban Public School
System, 1973 by Stephen Kent Amerman
Western Apache Oral Histories and Traditions of the Camp Grant Massacre by Chip
Colwell Chanthaphonh
"Though it Broke My Heart to Cut Some Bits I Fancied": Ella Deloria's Original Design
for Waterlily by Susan Gardner
"Survivance" in Sami and First Nations Boarding School Narratives: Reading Novels by
Kertt Vuolab and Shirley Sterling by Rauna Kuokkanen
"Good Indian": Charles Eastman and the Warrior as Civil Servant by Drew Lopenzina
Trading Paths: Mapping Chickasaw History in the Eighteenth Century by Wendy St. Jean
From Nansemond to Monacan: The Legacy of the Pochick-Nansemond by Jay Hansford
C.Vest
American Quarterly, vol. 55, no. 4 (December, 2003) "Forum on American Indian Studies: Can
the ASA be an Intellectual Home?" p. 669-702.
 American Indians, American Studies, and the ASA by Philip Joseph Deloria
 A Room of One's Own at the ASA: An Indigenous Provocation by Robert Allen Warrior
 Why Here? Scholarly Locations for American Indian Studies by Jean M. O'Brien
 Commentary [on Deloria, Warrior, O'Brien] by Mary Helen Washington
Chapters of Sections in Books:
Beardslee, Lois. "Solstice," in Not Far Away: The real-life adventures of Ima Pipiig. Lanham,
MD: AltaMira Press, 2007.
Davis, Natalie Zemon, "Iroquois Women, European Women" in Margo Hendricks and Patricia
Parker, eds, Women, "Race", and Writing in the Early Modern Period. New York: Routledge,
1994, p. 243-58.
Erdich, Louise. Love Medicine: a novel. New York: Holt, Rinehard, and Winston, 1984. - see
"Saint Marie" chapter.
Hosmer, Brian C. and Colleen M. O'Neill. Native Pathways: American Indian culture and
economic development in the twentieth century. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2004.
Mandell, Daniel. "Subaltern Indians, Race, and Class in Early America," in Class Matters: Early
North America and the Atlantic World, eds. Simon Middleton and Billy Smith. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming in 2008).
Morris, Irvin, From the Glittering World: A Navajo Story. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1997, p. 85-95.
Perdue, Theda, "The Conflict Within: Cherokees and Removal," in William Anderson, ed.,
Cherokee Removal: Before and After. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991, p. 55-74.
Rosier, Paul C. Rebirth of the Blackfeet Nation, 1912-1954. Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press, 2001. See chapters 4-5.
Sarris, Greg. Keeping Slug Woman Alive: A holistic approach to American Indian texts.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. See chapters discussing he and his aunties visit to
prestigious westcoast universities.
Sherman Alexie, "Class,""Assimilation," "The Toughest Indian in the World," in The Toughest
Indian in the World. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000.
Silva, Noenoe K. Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism.
Durham: Duke University Press, 2004. See brief section about plantation economies.
Poetry:
Chrystos poetry, including "The Roma Say"
Simon Ortiz's poems on mining
Esther Belin's "Ruby's Welfare"
Updated by Meaghan Heisinger, 2011
Compiled by H-AmIndian Staff, 2007