Living with Strangers: The Nineteenth-Century Sioux and the Canadian-American Borderlands (review)
- Living with Strangers: The Nineteenth-Century Sioux and the Canadian-American Borderlands
David McCrady sought to write a history of the Sioux and their path through the Canadian-American borderlands, from their perspective, with their view of the border or boundary. His work provides a strong corrective to the histories that treat the Sioux as an 'American' group of Indians or those that discuss Sitting Bull only when he enters Canada. He truly presents a history of the Sioux in the borderlands region and their relations with the other groups that inhabited the region.
He structures the book in a way that explores these relationships. Using a straight chronology, the chapters provide a step-by-step view of the movement of the Sioux across the border and their relationships with other Native peoples, the Metis, the Canadians, and the Americans. He begins with one of the best introductions to a borderland study, carefully explaining what borderland means and why [End Page 339] the Sioux have been left out of it in the past. From there, he provides a very quick overview of the previous hundred years that led to the migration. Then he marches from the Dakota Conflict, through the migration to Milk River, conflicts with the North-West Mounted Police, the Great Sioux War, and the failure of peace in Canada. Overall, he creates a brief history of the Sioux, where there was not one before. It is an excellent stepping stone for future authors who seek to further analyze the relationships and policy failures.
On one hand, this work provides a history for a people long left in the shadows. On the other hand, the history comes across as shallow, with little space devoted to analysis of the complex relationships McCrady uncovered. First, the book assumes a substantial knowledge of the Sioux. While he uses the Dakota Conflict as a pivotal moment, McCrady fails to discuss what it was at any point, assuming that the reader already knows the cause and the outcomes. Additionally, while continually stating that there were complex relationships between the Sioux and other actors, McCrady often mentions those relationships with little to no analysis of what these interactions tell us. For example, when discussing the relationship with the Metis, McCrady states they were 'facilitators, interpreters, and traders during the Lakotas' sojourn in Canada' (84). These roles seem significant, yet that is the only mention made of them. The same holds true for the Sioux's obvious understanding of the border and its uses. McCrady alludes to the Sioux making choices based on complex understandings of how the Canadian and US government worked. Yet he never fully develops these ideas, leaving the impression that it is a fluke, not political savvy, that leads them across the border. Overall, McCrady's work is a useful addition to borderland history. With luck and skill, it will inspire other scholars to analyze the relationships and politics of the Sioux.
