Native American Women and the Burdens of Southern History - (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History) by Daniel H Usner (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In 'Native American Women and the Burdens of Southern History,' Daniel Usner gives closer consideration to the experiences of Native American women over time to show how they both complicate and enrich our understanding of southern history and culture. Usner explores the dynamic role that Indigenous women in the South played in confronting sequential waves of colonization, European imperial invasion, plantation encroachment, and post-Civil War racialization, revealing that these events affected them in particular ways, and their means of adaptation and resistance likewise took distinct forms. Though long neglected, Indigenous women's history is increasing and improving, thanks primarily to specialized work on select individuals, places, and periods. While drawing attention to that scholarship, Usner's work uses original research to advance a new line of inquiry that focuses on Native American women's responses and initiatives across centuries. Usner especially emphasizes the deployment of a particular feature of material culture in the Lower Mississippi Valley and Gulf Coastal area of the South. Overall, his work underscores how central Indigenous women have been in struggles for Native American territory and sovereignty throughout southern history"

Book Synopsis

Though long neglected, the history and experiences of Indigenous women offer a deeper, more complex understanding of southern history and culture. In Native American Women and the Burdens of Southern History, Daniel H. Usner explores the dynamic role of Native American women in the South as they confronted waves of colonization, European imperial invasion, plantation encroachment, and post-Civil War racialization. In the process, he reveals the distinct form their means of adaptation and resistance took.

While drawing attention to existing scholarship on Native American women, Usner also uses original research and diverse sources, including visual images and material culture, to advance a new line of inquiry. Focusing on women's responses and initiatives across centuries, he shows how their agency shaped and reshaped their communities' relations with non-Native southerners. Exploring basketry in the Lower Mississippi Valley and Gulf Coastal South, Usner emphasizes the essential role women played in ongoing efforts at resistance and survival, even in the face of epidemics, violence, and enslavement unleashed by early colonizers. Foods and medicines that Native women gathered, carried, stored, and peddled in baskets proved integral in forming the region's frontier exchange economy. Later, as the plantation economy threatened to envelop their communities, Indigenous women adapted to change and resisted disappearance by perpetuating exchange with non-Native neighbors and preserving a deep attachment to the land. By the start of the twentieth century, facing a new round of lethal attacks on Indigenous territory, identity, and sovereignty in the Jim Crow South, Native women's resilient and resourceful skill as makers of basketry became a crucial instrument in their nations' political diplomacy.

Overall, Usner's work underscores how central Indigenous women have been in struggles for Native American territory and sovereignty throughout southern history.

Review Quotes

"Native American Women and the Burdens of Southern History is a short book, but it nevertheless manages to be comprehensive--and its incorporation of material culture as evidence makes the book especially useful. . . . [It] is a must-read for anyone interested in or teaching Native American women's history or gender studies, and its length is perfect for an undergraduate course."--William and Mary Quarterly

"In three succinct chapters, Usner offers a retelling of several centuries of Lower Mississippi Valley history that foregrounds Indigenous women's adaptations to new challenges--especially how they turned the longstanding practice of basketmaking into a means of advocating for sovereignty and territory in a changing world. . . . Native American Women and the Burdens of Southern History, then, is a compelling addition to the calls from scholars of the Native South for Southern historians to take seriously this region's Indigenous past and present."--American Historical Review

"Usner depicts the essential and central roles that Indigenous women of the Lower Mississippi Valley played in the survival of their peoples over centuries of colonization and dispossession. . . . This book could be enjoyed by an audience with wide-ranging interests. Its overview of existing scholarship on Indigenous women offers a lot to historians as well."--Journal of Southern History

About the Author

Daniel H. Usner is the Holland N. McTyeire Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of numerous books on Native American history, including American Indians in Early New Orleans: From Calumet to Raquette.