To Be the Main Leaders of Our People: A History of Minnesota Ojibwe Politics, 1825-1898 (American Indian Studies) [Paperback]

Rebecca Kugel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 1998 | Series: American Indian Studies

In the spring of 1868, people from several Ojibwe villages located along the upper Mississippi River were relocated to a new reservation at White Earth, more than 100 miles to the west. In many public declarations that accompanied their forced migration, these people appeared to embrace the move, as well as their conversion to Christianity and the new agrarian lifestyle imposed on them. Beneath this surface piety and apparent acceptance of change, however, lay deep and bitter political divisions that were to define fundamental struggles that shaped Ojibwe society for several generations.
     In order to reveal the nature and extent of this struggle for legitimacy and authority, To Be The Main Leaders of Our People reconstructs the political and social history of these Minnesota Ojibwe communities between the years 1825 and 1898. Ojibwe political concerns, the thoughts and actions of Ojibwe political leaders, and the operation of the Ojibwe political system define the work's focus. Kugel examines this particular period of time because of its significance to contemporary Ojibwe history. The year 1825, for instance, marked the beginning of a formal alliance with the United States; 1898 represented not an end, but a striking point of continuity, defying the easy categorizations of Native peoples made by non-Indians, especially in the closing years of the nineteenth century.
     In this volume, the Ojibwe "speak for themselves," as their words were recorded by government officials, Christian missionaries, fur traders, soldiers, lumbermen, homesteaders, and journalists. While they were nearly always recorded in English translation, Ojibwe thoughts, perceptions, concerns, and even humor, clearly emerge. To Be The Main Leaders of Our People expands the parameters of how oral traditions can be used in historical writing and sheds new light on a complex, but critical, series of events in ongoing relations between Native and non-Native people.
 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rebecca Kugel is Associate Professor of History, University of California, Riverside.

Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: Michigan State University Press (June 30, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870134310
• ISBN-13: 978-0870134319
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #804,667 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How Native Americans Responded to the Westward Movement, November 27, 2000

By 

Michael W. Fitzgerald (Northfield, Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Be the Main Leaders of Our People: A History of Minnesota Ojibwe Politics, 1825-1898 (American Indian Studies) (Paperback)

Just briefly, I am an historian so perhaps I am not the general reader. But I found Rebecca Kugel's account of the Ojibwe (Chippewa) struggle to adapt to the rush of Euro-American settlement utterly absorbing. It makes the choices faced by Native Americans, and the factional divisions among themselves, clearer than anything else I've read.

I am impressed enough with the book that I intend to use it as a textbook in my college class next semester. We'll see if my Minnesota students are equally impressed.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!, May 14, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: To Be the Main Leaders of Our People: A History of Minnesota Ojibwe Politics, 1825-1898 (American Indian Studies) (Paperback)

This is one of the most compelling stories that I have read on the Indians experience with the Europeans. My son brought this home, it was one of his college books, and I could not put it down after I picked it up.