Jeffrey Ostler´s new book

[Dietmar]

I´m sure many of you value Jeffrey Ostler´s book „The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism“ very much. Viking/Penguin Books will publish Ostler´s next book about American Indian History in 2009:

THE LAKOTAS AND THE BLACK HILLS
Jeff Ostler, Ph.D., Professor of History at the University of Oregon

For the Lakota people, Paha Sapa, the Black Hills of South Dakota are sacred ground, the place where they emerged from beneath the earth, “the heart of everything that is.” In the late nineteenth century, gold was discovered in the Black Hills and the U. S. government rescinded the Lakotas’ right to their own homeland—and the Lakotas fought to retain their land. Their victory over Custer at the Little Bighorn in 1876 is well known, but their arsenal included diplomacy, compromise, and prayer as well. The book recounts an astonishing range of Lakota efforts to secure justice, from the Ghost Dance of the late 1880s, in which they envisioned a spiritual revolution that would restore the land, to their use of new legal and political tactics in the twentieth century.
Although most Americans consider U.S. ownership of the Black Hills to be as permanent as the granite faces carved in Mount Rushmore, Lakotas believe that history’s wrongs can be reversed. Like the land itself, the past has become contested terrain as Americans have produced stories to justify and maintain their ownership and the Lakotas to reclaim theirs. The Lakotas achieved moral vindication of their position in 1980 when the Supreme Court held that the taking of the Black Hills in 1877 was illegal and granted monetary compensation. Lakotas, however, rejected the money and have continued to fight for the land. The Lakotas and the Black Hills is more than simply a history of the distant past. It invites readers to consider conflicts that remain very much alive and presents the possibility for reconciliation.

Jeffrey Ostler talks about his new book, genocide of American Indians and other issues if you follow this link:

media.uoregon.edu/channel/?p=76

This episode features Jeffrey Ostler, Professor in the Department of History. His research interests include the American West, America’s Political and Environmental History, and the History of the American Indian. He is the author of two books, and recipient of the Caughey Western History Association Prize as the best book of 2004 in Western US History. Humanities Center Director Steve Shankman interviews faculty, staff, and visiting lecturers about their research and interests for a 30 minute show that gives an inside look at the University of Oregon.

Btw, there will be coming out more interesting books by Penguin Books shortly:

us.penguingroup.com/static/pdf/academic/AmerIndianBrochure.pdf

The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears by Theda Perdue & Michael D. Green
(University of North Carolina)

The Shawnees and the War for America by Colin G. Calloway
(Dartmouth)

The Iroquois and Diplomacy on the Early American Frontier by Timothy J. Shannon
(Gettysburg College)

Pueblos, Spaniards, and the Kingdom of New Mexico by John L. Kessell
(Professor Emeritus, University of New Mexico)

American Indians and American Law by Bruce Duthu
(University of Vermont Law School and United Houma Indian Nation)

Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi by Timothy Pauketat
(University of Illinois)

Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Indian Community by Brenda J. Child
(University of Minnesota and Red Lake Ojibwe)

[Dietmar]

Jeff Ostler was kind enough to tell me that Viking plans to have his book on the Lakotas and the Black Hills out by next summer. So we have to wait a little while...

I´ll let you know about any update.

Dietmar

[Dietmar]

The Lakotas and the Black Hills: The Struggle for Sacred Ground (Penguin Library of American Indian History) [Hardcover] by Jeffrey Ostler will be out on July 22th.

[gregor]

I just finished Jeffrey Ostler's book "The Lakotas and the Black Hills".
A "must read". Especially the part in which he describes the struggle of the Lakotas with the American judiciary in the 20th century. From today's perspective (only from today's?), one can only shake ones head. What lawyers judge so many times.
Very enlightening even the part where Ostler describes the reasons why the Lakotas insist on the return of the Black Hills, instead of taking the money.

A big surprise was this anecdote to me: the initiator to carve Mount Rushmore, the historian Doane Robinson, initially proposed to carve known personalities of South Dakota - e.g. Red Cloud (!), Lewis & Clark, Sacagawea and others - into the rock. This was rejected by the sculptor Gutzon Borglum. Borglum favored the "founding father" Washington, the "savior of the nation" Lincoln, the "expansionist" Jefferson and Roosevelt, "who established commercial control by securing Panama" (meaning the Panama Canal).
Borgum prevailed (see page 146 in Ostlers book).

After "The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism" this is the second book of Ostler that I can recommend highly enough.

Greetings from Germany
Gregor