Turning the Power - (Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology) by Nathan Sowry (Hardcover)

About the Book

In Turning the Power Nathan Sowry examines how Native American students from the boarding school system, with its forced assimilated education, became key cultural informants for anthropologists conducting field work during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Book Synopsis

In Turning the Power Nathan Sowry examines how some Native American students from the boarding school system, with its forced assimilationist education, became key cultural informants for anthropologists conducting fieldwork during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Salvage anthropologists of this era relied on Native informants to accomplish their mission of "saving" Native American cultures and ultimately turned many informants into anthropologists after years of fieldwork experience.

Sowry investigates ten relatively unknown Native American anthropologists and collaborators who, from 1878 to 1930, attended a religiously affiliated mission school, a federal Indian boarding school, or both. He tells the stories of Native anthropologists Tichkematse, William Jones, and James R. Murie, who were alumni of the Hampton Institute in Virginia. Richard Davis and Cleaver Warden were among the first and second classes to attend the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. Amos Oneroad graduated from the Haskell Indian Industrial Training School in Lawrence, Kansas, after attending mission and boarding schools in South Dakota. D. C. Duvall, John V. Satterlee, and Florence and Louis Shotridge attended smaller boarding and mission schools in Montana, Wisconsin, and Alaska Territory, respectively.

Turning the Power follows the forced indoctrination of Native American students and then details how each of them "turned the power," using their English knowledge and work experience in the anthropological field to embrace, document, and preserve their Native cultures rather than abandoning their heritage.

Review Quotes

"Turning the Power brings to historical consciousness a series of Native individuals who have rarely been recognized and whose roles in early ethnographic fieldwork were significant. Of even greater importance, though, are the issues surrounding ethnic identity and the central importance of individual decisions (agency). The essays are fascinating to read, individually and collectively."--Curtis M. Hinsley, coeditor of Coming of Age in Chicago: The 1893 World's Fair and the Coalescence of American Anthropology

"Nathan Sowry's research utilizes a vast array of archival and secondary sources. He has done a wonderful job of weaving the narratives of important characters in each chapter. It will serve well anyone interested in the history of American anthropology and American Indians."--Benjamin R. Kracht, editor of Autobiography of a Kiowa Indian

About the Author

Nathan Sowry is a reference archivist at the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution.