Description
The Lakh o ta are among the best-known Native American peoples. In popular culture and even many scholarly works, they were once lumped together with others and called the Sioux. This book tells the full story of Lakh o ta culture and society, from their origins to the twenty-first century, drawing on Lakh o ta voices and perspectives.
In Lakh o ta culture, "listening" is a cardinal virtue, connoting respect, and here authors Rani-Henrik Andersson and David C. Posthumus listen to the Lakh o ta, both past and present. The history of Lakh o ta culture unfolds in this narrative as the people lived it.
Fittingly, Lakhota: An Indigenous History opens with an origin story, that of White Buffalo Calf Woman (Ptesanwin) and her gift of the sacred pipe to the Lakh o ta people. Drawing on winter counts, oral traditions and histories, and Lakh o ta letters and speeches, the narrative proceeds through such periods and events as early Lakh o ta-European trading, the creation of the Great Sioux Reservation, Christian missionization, the Plains Indian Wars, the Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee (1890), the Indian New Deal, and self-determination, as well as recent challenges like the #NoDAPL movement and management of Covid-19 on reservations. This book centers Lakh o ta experience, as when it shifts the focus of the Battle of Little Bighorn from Custer to fifteen-year-old Black Elk, or puts American Horse at the heart of the negotiations with the Crook Commission, or explains the Lakh o ta agenda in negotiating the Fort Laramie Treaty in 1851.
The picture that emerges-of continuity and change in Lakh o ta culture from its distant beginnings to issues in our day-is as sweeping and intimate, and as deeply complex, as the lived history it encompasses.
About the Author
Rani-Henrik Andersson holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Tampere in Finland. He has served as the McDonnell Douglas Chair, Professor of American Studies at the University of Helsinki and is currently working as a Core Fellow at the University of Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. He has published a number of scholarly articles about topics in Native American history, and has held a position as a visiting research fellow at Indiana University where he worked with Lakota experts Ray DeMallie and Doug Parks. Andersson is the author of The Lakota Ghost Dance of 1890 (University of Nebraska Press, 2008).
David C. Posthumus holds a PhD in Anthropology and is the author of All My Relatives: Exploring Lakota Ontology, Belief, and Ritual and the novel The Legend of the Dogman. He is Senior Market Analyst at The Martec Group.
Reviews
"In this rangy, ambitious work, Rani-Henrik Andersson and David C. Posthumus center LakhOta voices, language, and conceptual worlds to craft a stunning narrative that takes readers on a journey far removed from old familiar histories. LakhOta: An Indigenous History is a remarkable and important contribution, one not to be missed."-Philip J. Deloria, author of Becoming Mary Sully: Toward an American Indian Abstract
"This book surpasses earlier histories of the Lakh o ta. With its meticulous attention to the distinctive cultural and complex political foundations of the Lakh o ta, it sets a new standard in Plains Indian scholarship."-Mark van de Logt, author of War Party in Blue: Pawnee Scouts in the U.S. Army
"Lakh o ta: An Indigenous History brilliantly contextualizes winter counts and other Lakh o ta sources to reveal a Native point of view on events commonly interpreted through a Western lens."-Candace S. Greene, coeditor of The Year the Stars Fell: Lakota Winter Counts at the Smithsonian
"In revealing how Lakhota traditions illuminate this people's perspectives on their own past, Rani-Henrik Andersson and David C. Posthumus have rendered a clear, comprehensive exploration of Lakhota experience, initiative, and endurance. Lakhota: An Indigenous History is a rare achievement."-Louis S. Warren, author of God's Red Son: The Ghost Dance Religion and the Making of Modern America
Book Information
ISBN 9780806190754
Author Rani-Henrik Andersson
Format Hardback
Page Count 440
Imprint University of Oklahoma Press
Publisher University of Oklahoma Press
Weight(grams) 354g
In Lakh o ta culture, "listening" is a cardinal virtue, connoting respect, and here authors Rani-Henrik Andersson and David C. Posthumus listen to the Lakh o ta, both past and present. The history of Lakh o ta culture unfolds in this narrative as the people lived it.
Fittingly, Lakhota: An Indigenous History opens with an origin story, that of White Buffalo Calf Woman (Ptesanwin) and her gift of the sacred pipe to the Lakh o ta people. Drawing on winter counts, oral traditions and histories, and Lakh o ta letters and speeches, the narrative proceeds through such periods and events as early Lakh o ta-European trading, the creation of the Great Sioux Reservation, Christian missionization, the Plains Indian Wars, the Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee (1890), the Indian New Deal, and self-determination, as well as recent challenges like the #NoDAPL movement and management of Covid-19 on reservations. This book centers Lakh o ta experience, as when it shifts the focus of the Battle of Little Bighorn from Custer to fifteen-year-old Black Elk, or puts American Horse at the heart of the negotiations with the Crook Commission, or explains the Lakh o ta agenda in negotiating the Fort Laramie Treaty in 1851.
The picture that emerges-of continuity and change in Lakh o ta culture from its distant beginnings to issues in our day-is as sweeping and intimate, and as deeply complex, as the lived history it encompasses.
About the Author
Rani-Henrik Andersson holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Tampere in Finland. He has served as the McDonnell Douglas Chair, Professor of American Studies at the University of Helsinki and is currently working as a Core Fellow at the University of Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. He has published a number of scholarly articles about topics in Native American history, and has held a position as a visiting research fellow at Indiana University where he worked with Lakota experts Ray DeMallie and Doug Parks. Andersson is the author of The Lakota Ghost Dance of 1890 (University of Nebraska Press, 2008).
David C. Posthumus holds a PhD in Anthropology and is the author of All My Relatives: Exploring Lakota Ontology, Belief, and Ritual and the novel The Legend of the Dogman. He is Senior Market Analyst at The Martec Group.
Reviews
"In this rangy, ambitious work, Rani-Henrik Andersson and David C. Posthumus center LakhOta voices, language, and conceptual worlds to craft a stunning narrative that takes readers on a journey far removed from old familiar histories. LakhOta: An Indigenous History is a remarkable and important contribution, one not to be missed."-Philip J. Deloria, author of Becoming Mary Sully: Toward an American Indian Abstract
"This book surpasses earlier histories of the Lakh o ta. With its meticulous attention to the distinctive cultural and complex political foundations of the Lakh o ta, it sets a new standard in Plains Indian scholarship."-Mark van de Logt, author of War Party in Blue: Pawnee Scouts in the U.S. Army
"Lakh o ta: An Indigenous History brilliantly contextualizes winter counts and other Lakh o ta sources to reveal a Native point of view on events commonly interpreted through a Western lens."-Candace S. Greene, coeditor of The Year the Stars Fell: Lakota Winter Counts at the Smithsonian
"In revealing how Lakhota traditions illuminate this people's perspectives on their own past, Rani-Henrik Andersson and David C. Posthumus have rendered a clear, comprehensive exploration of Lakhota experience, initiative, and endurance. Lakhota: An Indigenous History is a rare achievement."-Louis S. Warren, author of God's Red Son: The Ghost Dance Religion and the Making of Modern America
Book Information
ISBN 9780806190754
Author Rani-Henrik Andersson
Format Hardback
Page Count 440
Imprint University of Oklahoma Press
Publisher University of Oklahoma Press
Weight(grams) 354g
