Welcome to the Oglala Nation - by Akim D Reinhardt (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Popular culture largely perceives the tragedy at Wounded Knee in 1890 as the end of Native American resistance in the West, and for many years historians viewed this event as the end of Indian history altogether. The Dawes Act of 1887 and the reservation system dramatically changed daily life and political dynamics, particularly for the Oglala Lakotas. As Akim D. Reinhardt demonstrates in this volume, however, the twentieth century continued to be politically dynamic. Even today, as life continues for the Oglalas on the Pine Ridge Reservation in southwestern South Dakota, politics remain an integral component of the Lakota past and future. Reinhardt charts the political history of the Oglala Lakota people from the fifteenth century to the present with this edited collection of primary documents, a historical narrative, and a contemporary bibliographic essay. Throughout the twentieth century, residents on Pine Ridge and other reservations confronted, resisted, and adapted to the continuing effects of U.S. colonialism. During the modern reservation era, reservation councils, grassroots and national political movements, courtroom victories and losses, and cultural battles have shaped indigenous populations. Both a documentary reader and a Lakota history, Welcome to the Oglala Nation is an indispensable volume on Lakota politics.

Review Quotes

"Welcome to the Oglala Nation: A Documentary Reader in Oglala Lakota Political History is more than a documentary reader. Through a combination of primary documents, historical narrative, and historiography, Akim Reinhardt provides a comprehensive overview of more than 500 years of Oglala Lakota political history."--Margaret Huettl, Great Plains Quarterly

"A fresh tapestry of Lakota and Dakota history."--Roundup Magazine

"A welcome contribution to American Indian history."--Jace Decory, South Dakota History

"Akim Reinhardt's Welcome to the Oglala Nation is a powerful combination of narrative description and primary documents that provides the reader with a deeper understanding of Oglala political history. Both the novice and the expert should find it useful."--David R. M. Beck, professor of Native American studies at the University of Montana and coauthor of City Indian: Native American Activism in Chicago, 1893-1934-- (3/5/2015 12:00:00 AM)

"Gathered in these pages is the story of one of the Great Plains' ultimate survivors: the Oglala Lakotas. Covering the days when they first left the eastern woodlands for the prairie up to contemporary tribal politics, Akim Reinhardt has compiled vital information for scholars and armchair historians alike."--Stew Magnuson, author of The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder and Wounded Knee 1973: Still Bleeding-- (3/5/2015 12:00:00 AM)

"Reinhardt covers more Lakota history and culture in one book than any other collective publication I have seen or read. It is a very thorough, accurate, and powerful collection of primary source documents. . . . The publication is a very useful teaching tool and a valuable source of information for interested readers."--Tribal College Journal

"Reinhardt has produced an accessible collection of resources that both novices and scholars will find useful."--David Christensen, Kansas History

About the Author

Akim D. Reinhardt is an associate professor of history at Towson University. He is the author of Ruling Pine Ridge: Oglala Lakota Politics from the IRA to Wounded Knee, winner of the 2008 Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize.