Social Change and Cultural Continuity among Native Nations

Duane Champagne provides a sophisticated analysis on how Native Americans seek/sought to maintain or restore political and cultural autonomy in the face of overwhelming outside pressures pushing them toward individual and collective assimilation. Through a variety of impressive case studies ranging from Alaska to the Mid-Atlantic region, he carefully shows that indigenous communities' resistance is/was rooted in their own beliefs and cultural traditions, and that their quest for self-determination cannot be simply understood or explained using contemporary social science theory or terminology. His excellent work is a call for scholars to study more thoroughly how indigenous communities conceptualize resistance, by exploring in greater depth Native American beliefs, cultures and languages rather than rely altogether on western models.