Kiowa Humanity and the Invasion of the State

Kiowa Humanity and the Invasion of the State illuminates the ways in which Kiowas on the southern plains dealt with the U.S. government's efforts to control them after they were forced onto a reservation by an 1867 treaty. The overarching effects of colonial domination resembled those suffered by other Native groups at the time-a considerable loss of land and population decline, as well as a continual erosion of the Kiowas' political, cultural, economic, and religious sovereignty and traditions. Although readily acknowledging these far-reaching consequences, Jacki Thompson Rand sees the root impact of colonialism and the concomitant Kiowa responses as centered less on policy disputes than on the disruptions to their daily life and to their humanity. Colonialism attacked the Kiowas on the most human, everyday level-through starvation, outbreaks of smallpox, emotional disorientation, and continual difficulties in securing clothing and shelter, and the Kiowas' responses and counterassertions of sovereignty thus tended to focus on efforts to feed their people, sustain the physical community, and preserve psychic equilibrium. Offering a fresh, original view of Native responses to colonialism, this study demonstrates amply that Native struggles against the encroachment of the state go well beyond armed resistance and political strategizing. Rand shows that the Native response was born of everyday survival and the yearning for well-being and community Jacki Thompson Rand is Choctaw and an associate professor of history at the University of Iowa.

Author: Jacki Thompson Rand
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 03/01/2008
Pages: 210
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.83h x 5.66w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780803239661

Review Citation(s):
Choice 04/01/2009

About the Author
Jacki Thompson Rand is Choctaw and an associate professor of history at the University of Iowa.