American Indians and the Urban Experience

Edited by Kurt Peters, Susan Lobo

Not available to order

Publication date:

09 May 2002

Length of book:

336 pages

Publisher

AltaMira Press

ISBN-13: 9780585386362

Modern American Indian life is urban, rural, and everything in-between. Lobo and Peters have compiled an unprecedented collection of innovative scholarship, stunning art, poetry, and prose 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, and American Indians and the Urban Experience will be an absolutely essential text for instructors. This powerful combination of path-breaking scholarship and visual and literary arts—from poetry and photography to rap and graffiti—will be enjoyed by students, scholars, and a general audience. A Choice Outstanding Academic Book.
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 range—from 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...