Indians in the Making

About this book

In the Puget Sound region of Washington state, indigenous peoples and their descendants have a long history of interaction with settlers and their descendants. Indians in the Making offers the first comprehensive account of these meetings, from the land-based fur trade of the 1820s to the Indian fishing rights activism of the 1970s. Thoroughly researched and theoretically sophisticated, this history shows how notions of Indian identity - both Indian and non-Indian - changed as relations changed. By chronicling such dialogues over 150 years, this study reveals that Indianness itself has a complex history. It is not a timeless essence preserved by some people and lost by others. Examining relations in various spheres of life - labor, public ceremony, marriage and kinship, politics and law - Harmon shows that Indians have continually redefined themselves. Her focus on the negotiations that gave rise to modern Indian identity makes a powerful historical contribution to contemporary discussions of race and ethnicity in America.