This book is about the way federal policy has targeted Native American Indians time and time again throughout history. It is about how Native American Indian women cleverly resisted outside efforts from destroying their way of life. It started with the treaties and is still going today with state welfare reform. This book examines the tensions between the different policies that have impacted the reservation economy and the cultural obligations that maintain community life on the reservation. The main focus book of this book is how these strong women respond to life on the reservation as it drastically changes. With each tribe having their own distinct cultural practices and histories, they have overcome their obstacles to create wage, work and informal economies.
The author does a fantastic job of demonstrating the intersection of kinship, the informal economy, ceremonial exchanges of goods, government assistance programs, and the cash economy on the reservation, Ft. Berthold, which is home to the Three Affiliated Tribes, the Mandan, the Arikara and the Hidatsa, in North Dakota the three tribes settled there in the 1860’s. …show more content…
This is an economy where women pursue mixed income strategies by combining wage work, leasing their land, raising stock, making crafts and various forms of government
The author does a fantastic job of demonstrating the intersection of kinship, the informal economy, ceremonial exchanges of goods, government assistance programs, and the cash economy on the reservation, Ft. Berthold, which is home to the Three Affiliated Tribes, the Mandan, the Arikara and the Hidatsa, in North Dakota the three tribes settled there in the 1860’s. …show more content…
This is an economy where women pursue mixed income strategies by combining wage work, leasing their land, raising stock, making crafts and various forms of government