UNC Press - Reimagining Indian Country

256 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 3 tables, 10 halftones, notes, bibl., index

A project of First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies

Cloth

ISBN 978-0-8078-3555-5

Published: May 2012

Native American Migration and Identity in Twentieth-Century Los Angeles

For decades, most American Indians have lived in cities, not on reservations or in rural areas. Still, scholars, policymakers, and popular culture often regard Indians first as reservation peoples, living apart from non-Native Americans. In this book, Nicolas Rosenthal reorients our understanding of the experience of American Indians by tracing their migration to cities, exploring the formation of urban Indian communities, and delving into the shifting relationships between reservations and urban areas from the early twentieth century to the present.

With a focus on Los Angeles, which by 1970 had more Native American inhabitants than any place outside the Navajo reservation, Reimagining Indian Country shows how cities have played a defining role in modern American Indian life and examines the evolution of Native American identity in recent decades. Rosenthal emphasizes the lived experiences of Native migrants in realms including education, labor, health, housing, and social and political activism to understand how they adapted to an urban environment, and to consider how they formed--and continue to form--new identities. Though still connected to the places where indigenous peoples have preserved their culture, Rosenthal argues that Indian identity must be understood as dynamic and fully enmeshed in modern global networks.

About the Author

Nicolas G. Rosenthal is associate professor of history at Loyola Marymount University.

Reviews

“A book that should be read by policy makers who are interested in truly helping American Indians beyond mere lip service.”
--Native News Network

“Rosenthal adds a solid, highly original, and thought-provoking volume that documents and examines Native American migration into the Los Angeles area. . . . Essential. All levels/libraries.”
--Choice

“Offers a richer history of indigenous people living, working, and interacting with diverse metropolitan populations throughout the twentieth century. . . . [A] detailed and accessible study.”
--American Indian Library

“The author has laid a strong foundation for an ambitious project within the field of Native American history.”
--Southern California Quarterly

"Engagingly written and exhaustively researched, Nicolas Rosenthal's sophisticated analysis of urbanization sets a new standard in the field."
--Daniel Cobb, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"Tracing the lives of urban Indians through the experiences of workers, community organizers, parents and children, Rosenthal’s study helps us understand how cities became Indian country--and how Native people made it so."
--Brian Hosmer, H.G. Barnard Chair in Western American History at the University of Tulsa and co-editor (with Larry Nesper) of Tribal Worlds: Critical Studies in American Indian Nation Building