American Indians and the Urban Experience

(Paperback)

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Modern American Indian life is urban, rural, and everything in-between. Lobo and Peters have compiled an unprecedented collection of innovative scholarship, poetry, prose, and stunning art - from photography and graffiti to rap and songs - that documents American Indian experiences of urban life. A pervasive rural/urban dichotomy still shapes the popular and scholarly perceptions of Native Americans, but this is a false expression of a complex and constantly changing reality. When viewed from the Native perspectives, our concepts of urbanity and approaches to American Indian studies are necessarily transformed. Courses in Native American studies, ethnic studies, anthropology, and urban studies must be in step with contemporary Indian realities. This powerful combination of pathbreaking scholarship and visual and literary arts will be enjoyed by students, scholars, and a general audience.

Reviews

Topics and approaches are almost as diverse as the one-half to two-thirds of American Indians who live in cities, not on reservations. The multiplicity of disciplinary angles helps accentuate the many facets of urban Indian experience....A richly suggestive gateway to an all-too-neglected aspect of Native American history and ongoing life. -- D. F. Anderson, (Northwestern College, Iowa) * Choice Reviews *
Policy studies have focused on the federal government's relocation program....Social sciences studies have have addressed issues relating to drinking and group membership exclusively through the use of quantitative surveys ... Lobo and Peters' edited collection tries to move beyond these concern and present a fuller, richer picture of American Indian urban life....The majority of essays ... cover an extraordinary wide rangefrom pre-Columbian urban centers to urban Indians in fiction to the funding challenges faces by urban Indian institutions today....This eclectic group of essays, poems, and photographs effectively introduces readers to the lives of Indian people living in cities. -- James B. LaGrand, (Messiah College) * American Studies *
Unbounded by the restraints of traditional research agendas, the contributors to this work bring together research, art, and poetry to discuss themes in the lives of urban Indians.... This phenomenal and long overdue collection is especially useful to those who teach courses in Native American studies, ethnic studies, anthropology, and urban studies. -- Linda Rhone, Cowley County (Kan.) College * Multicultural Review *

Author Bio

Susan Lobo is a cultural anthropologist and consultant working primarily for American Indian tribes and community organizations in the U.S. and Central and South America. Kurt M. Peters is associate professor of Native American and comparative ethnic studies at Oregon State University.