Native American Tribalism: Indian Survivals and Renewals
[Knack is an American anthropologist and educator whose writings include a study of Utah's Paiute Indians. In the review below, she commends McNickle's inclusion of new concepts and events in Native American Tribalism.]
[Native American Tribalism: Indian Survivals and Renewals] is the long awaited and timely second edition of D'Arcy McNickle's basic 1962 history, The Indian Tribes of the United States: Ethnic and Cultural Survival. The brief original work has been significantly expanded and updated, with new chapters constituting nearly 30% of the volume. The second edition adds discussion of Canadian and Alaskan Indian history. It includes proportionately much more information on recent events and contemporary circumstances. Illustrations of contemporary Indian activities have also been added.
Concepts from recent anthropological literature have been utilized and the interpretation of Indian-white contact has been modified with greater stress on consciously selective borrowing of Euro-American traits by Indians and present cultural restructuring. The totally new concluding chapter comes out strongly in support of cultural pluralism, self-determination, and pan-Indian unity. Never blandly historical, McNickle's prose is more partisan than in the original volume, employing the conflict terminology characteristic of modern Indian journalism.
At a time when books about Indian history are vastly popular, it is refreshing to have a new edition by this eminent Flathead scholar. As a brief, coherent introduction to North American history from a point of view different from that of the usual college texts, one which will put students in a better position to understand current Indian problems, tensions, and political behavior, this volume would be hard to best. Its primary weakness lies in its brevity which requires extensive generalization and selection on the part of the author. At the same time, this brevity permits it to be used in conjunction with other texts in course development and widens the number and types of courses in which it can be used.
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