COLONIALISM AND AUTONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES: THE SIOUX AND THE CHEROKEE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee. By Jeffrey Ostler. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2004. xviii + 387 pp. Maps, photographs, illustrations, notes, and index. $65.00 (cloth); $21.99 (paper).

Demanding the Cherokee Nation: Indian Autonomy and American Culture, 1830¨1900. By Andrew Denson. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004. xi + 327 pp. Notes, bibliography, and index. $55.00 (cloth).

Steve Amerman
Southern Connecticut State University

Immigration history obviously takes on a rather different appearance when viewed from Native American perspectives. Here, the story is not one of an ethnic group immigrating to the United States, but rather one of the U.S. itself migrating west into Indian lands. While the significance of that difference cannot be overstated, there are certain general similarities that American Indians have shared with the groups that immigrated to the United States. Both Indians and immigrants had to struggle to find a place within the American political, economic, and cultural system. Both Jeffrey Ostler and Andrew Denson have made solid contributions to our understanding of Native American struggles. In so doing, they also offer important insights into American ethnic history generally.