Ruling Pine Ridge - (Plains Histories) by Akim D Reinhardt

About the Book

Incorporating previously overlooked materials, including tribal council records, oral histories, and reservation newspapers, Ruling Pine Ridge explores the political history of South Dakota's Oglala Lakota reservation during the mid-twentieth century. Akim D. Reinhardt examines the reservation's transition from the direct colonialism of the pre-...

Book Synopsis

Incorporating previously overlooked materials, including tribal council records, oral histories, and reservation newspapers, Ruling Pine Ridge explores the political history of South Dakota's Oglala Lakota reservation during the mid-twentieth century. Akim D. Reinhardt examines the reservation's transition from the direct colonialism of the pre-1934 era to the indirect colonial policies of the controversial Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) and the advent of the tribal council governing system still in place today on Pine Ridge and on many other reservations. Reinhardt demonstrates how conflicting political values foregrounded by the new governing format led to an aggravation of social divisions on the reservation and eventually came to a head in 1973 with the occupation and siege of Wounded Knee. The siege is best understood, he claims, not as a political stunt of the American Indian Movement (AIM) but as a spontaneous, grassroots protest at least forty years in the making.

Review Quotes

"A work of impeccable and detailed scholarly research (some of which had never been previously accessed by historians), that should be a part of every university library's Native American Studies reference collection, Ruling Pine Ridge is a seminal study that is an academically impressive, substantively informative, and thoughtfully insightful." -- Internet Bookwatch "Internet Bookwatch"

"Ruling Pine Ridge reads strong, having captured the essence of OIA/BIA internal colonist control over Pine Ridge throughout most of the twentieth century. In this respect, it is an important historical resource for understanding contemporary political struggles of American Indian reservations and Native Americans." -- James V. Fenelon "Great Plains Quarterly"

"Akim D. Reinhardt taps the currents of Native American life....[his] work is essential for anyone seeking insight and understanding of the subterranean currents in Lakota societies from the IRA to AIM." -- William L. Hewitt "Nebraska History"

About the Author

Akim D. Reinhardt is an associate professor of History at Towson University in Maryland. His work has also appeared in American Indian Quarterly, the Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, and La Pensée.