AT THE BORDER OF EMPIRES by Andrae Micheal Marak, Laura Tuennerman ( 9780816536566 )

Item Details

Title:

AT THE BORDER OF EMPIRES
THE TOHONO O'ODHAM, GENDER, AND ASSIMILATION, 1880-1934

By:

Format:

Paperback

List price:	£32.95
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ISBN 10:

0816536562

ISBN 13:

9780816536566

Publisher:

UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA PRESS

Pub. date:

14 March, 2017

Pages:

232

Description:

The border between the United States and Mexico, established in 1853, passes through the territory of the Tohono O'odham peoples. This revealing book sheds light on Native American history as well as conceptions of femininity, masculinity, and empire.

Synopsis:

The story of the Tohono O'odham peoples offers an important account of assimilation. Bifurcated by a border demarcating Mexico and the United States that was imposed on them after the Gadsden Purchase in 1853, the Tohono O'odham lived at the edge of two empires. Although they were often invisible to the majority cultures of the region, they attracted the attention of reformers and government officials in the United States, who were determined to "assimilate" native peoples into "American society." By focusing on gender norms and ideals in the assimilation of the Tohono O'odham, At the Border of Empires provides a lens for looking at both Native American history and broader societal ideas about femininity, masculinity, and empire around the turn of the twentieth century. Beginning in the 1880s, the US government implemented programs to eliminate "vice" among the Tohono O'odham and to encourage the morals of the majority culture as the basis of a process of "Americanization."During the next fifty years, tribal norms interacted with-sometimes conflicting with and sometimes reinforcing-those of the larger society in ways that significantly shaped both government policy and tribal experience. This book examines the mediation between cultures, the officials who sometimes developed policies based on personal beliefs and gender biases, and the native people whose lives were impacted as a result. These issues are brought into useful relief by comparing the experiences of the Tohono O'odham on two sides of a border that was, from a native perspective, totally arbitrary.

Illustrations:

13 photographs, 3 maps

Publication:

Imprint:

University of Arizona Press

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

AT THE BORDER OF EMPIRES (HB)

FROM MANY, ONE (PB)

SMUGGLERS, BROTHELS, AND TWINE (HB)

TRANSNATIONAL INDIANS IN THE NORTH AMERICAN WEST (HB)