Implementing many of the most cutting-edge trends in contemporary indigenous studies, these seventeen original essays tackle indigenous identity, cultural perseverance, economic development, and urbanization in a wide array of American Indian and First Nations populations. The authors present and preserve indigenous voices and carefully consider native world views throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, and also address mainstream policies that influenced Native people in various eras and locales. The essays range from the specific single peoples living in well-defined spaces during discrete time periods, to the expansive broad comparative and international discussions. Yet the volumes diversity extends beyond its topical breadth. The contributors themselves - many of whom are Native Americans or members of other First Nation - speer through scholarly lenses polished in Canada, Denmark, Finland, England, Sweden, and the United States. The ensuing synthesis helps to clarify the modern complexities of analyzing indigenous pasts.

Foreword by: Markku Henriksson