Rebirth of the Blackfeet Nation, 1912-1954 - by Paul C Rosier (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Drawing on interviews, democratic theory, and extensive archival research, Paul C. Rosier focuses on the internal political, economic, and ethnic forces shaping the Blackfeet Nation during the first half of the twentieth century. Incorporating Blackfeet voices throughout his study, Rosier shows how transformations were not imposed on the Blackfeet but were the result of their continuing efforts to create a community of their own design and to reorganize relations with outsiders on their own terms. Rebirth of the Blackfeet Nation, 1912-1954 illuminates a pivotal time in modern Indian-white relations and broadens our understanding of the meaning of democracy in America.

Review Quotes

"Rosier's book is excruciatingly revealing, honest, and important. . . . Rosier's work is an eloquent account of a people who have been though the worst of times and still view every day as one of promise."--Great Plains Quarterly

"A long overdue addition to the sparse scholarship on Native political and economic activism in the twentieth century."--Melissa L. Meyer, American Historical Review

"A well-researched, sophisticated political history of the Blackfeet in the early to mid-twentieth century. Shifting tribal history away from the nineteenth-century tribal wars, he presents a portrait of people finding ways to contend with the paternalistic federal government. . . . Rebirth of the Blackfeet Nation is a masterful, sensitive book."--Scott Meridith, H-Net Reviews

"An outstanding book on one tribe's experience of their internal struggles in embracing the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act and the termination era of the early 1950s."--George Heavy Runner, American Studies

"Dense, detailed, and rewarding."--Stephen Cornell, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"In this important new work, Paul Rosier looks deeply into the dynamics of the Blackfeet community as the group adapted to reservation life. . . . This is a thorough, balanced, and conceptually sound analysis."--Larry Burt, Western Historical Quarterly

"Paul Rosier's superb monograph deals with the intense economic and political efforts of the Blackfeet to collectively emancipate themselves from their own earlier political paradigms, from poverty and dependency, and from the wardship of the federal government. . . . The novelty and originality of this work rests on the focus that Rosier brings to the largely unnoticed and unwritten Blackfeet story of mixed-blood involvement, leadership, and commitment to a tribal future that was broadly inclusive and decidedly Indian."--William E. Farr, Journal of American Ethnic History

"This book rightfully deserves a prominent place in the Indian New Deal canon."--Theodore Binnema, American Indian Culture and Research Journal

About the Author

Paul C. Rosier is a visiting assistant professor of history at Villanova University.