Native but Foreign : Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands / Brenden W. Rensink.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rensink, Brenden W., author.

Series:

Connecting the greater west series.

Connecting the greater west

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indians of North America--Legal status, laws, etc.

Indians of North America.

Transnationalism.

Indians of North America--Mexican-American Border Region--Government relations.

Indians of North America--Canadian-American Border Region--Government relations.

Indians of North America--Migration.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (320 pages).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

College Station : Texas A&M University Press, [2018]

Summary:

Winner, 2019 Spur Award for Best Historical Nonfiction Book, sponsored by Western Writers of America In Native but Foreign , historian Brenden W. Rensink presents an innovative comparison of indigenous peoples who traversed North American borders in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, examining Crees and Chippewas, who crossed the border from Canada into Montana, and Yaquis from Mexico who migrated into Arizona. The resulting history questions how opposing national borders affect and react differently to Native identity and offers new insights into what it has meant to be "indigenous" or an "immigrant." Rensink's findings counter a prevailing theme in histories of the American West--namely, that the East was the center that dictated policy to the western periphery. On the contrary, Rensink employs experiences of the Yaquis, Crees, and Chippewas to depict Arizona and Montana as an active and mercurial blend of local political, economic, and social interests pushing back against and even reshaping broader federal policy. Rensink argues that as immediate forces in the borderlands molded the formation of federal policy, these Native groups moved from being categorized as political refugees to being cast as illegal immigrants, subject to deportation or segregation; in both cases, this legal transition was turbulent. Despite continued staunch opposition, Crees, Chippewas, and Yaquis gained legal and permanent settlements in the United States and successfully broke free of imposed transnational identities. Accompanying the thought-provoking text, a vast guide to archival sources across states, provinces, and countries is included to aid future scholarship. Native but Foreign is an essential work for scholars of immigration, indigenous peoples, and borderlands studies.

Contents:

Foreword / by Sterling Evans

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Introduction: Comparing the US-Canadian and US-Mexican borderlands and the transnational natives who crossed them

Homelands, transnational worlds, labor, and border encounters

Crees, Chippewas, and Yaquis in early transnational contexts

Transnational encounters and evolving prejudice in Montana and Arizona, 1800-1900

Native peoples as "foreign" refugees and immigrants

Yaqui refugees and American response, 1880s-1910s

Cree refugees and American response, 1885-1888

Native struggles to make American homelands

Crees in limbo and deportation, 1889-1900

Arizona Yaquimi and integration in the United States, 1900s-1950s

Yaqui legality and belonging in Arizona, 1900-1950s

Cree and Chippewa attempts at permanent Montana settlement, 1900-1908

New allies, new efforts, and final resolutions

Cree and Chippewa legislative battles and victories, 1908-1916

Yaqui struggle for land and federal tribal recognition, 1962-1980.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-62349-656-X

OCLC:

1048355516