The Sioux: The Dakota and Lakota Nations (review)

Sioux history buffs beware: this book was not written for you. In fact, Gibbon wrote it 'for advanced students and readers ... to prod readers into thinking deeply, critically, independently, and diligently about the history of the Sioux.' Despite the plethora of books on the Sioux, this one is unique. It covers Sioux history from 9500 bc to the present day, but it is not intended to serve as a narrative history. Gibbon dispenses with the narrative history in a seven-page summary in chapter 1, and with brief introductory sections in each of the subsequent chronologically arranged chapters. The odd Sioux history buff who picks it up will be as horrified as many scholars will be delighted to find that Gibbon devotes only about half a page to the Sioux war of 1862, and about a page and a half to the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Neither does Gibbon defend a central argument. It is something more than a literature review, but at its core it is an attempt to explore some of the debates and questions relating to Sioux history. In each chapter, Gibbon discusses various issues, sometimes to present a conclusion of his own, sometimes to summarize the literature, and sometimes to suggest important unanswered questions for further thought and research. Because of what it is, this useful book will likely occupy a small niche.

From a historiographical perspective, the book is interesting because it answers the question of what a history book might look like if written by an archaeologist. Historians should be particularly interested in Gibbon's use of archaeological evidence (not only for 'prehistory' but also for more recent Sioux history and the history of Custer's last stand) and anthropological concepts, but Gibbon discusses other less-commonly used sources too: photographs, maps, and winter counts. Historians might be struck by the archaeological metaphor Gibbon uses to describe the historian's task: 'The reader must excavate a text to get at its buried meaning to understand what the text is actually saying.' On the downside, the dry, bloodless descriptions of Sioux history remind one of many an archaeological report. The book may serve as a useful reference source, but the wooden prose will militate against its use as a text in advanced Aboriginal history classes. The topics covered emphasize social and cultural dimensions of Sioux history, such as changing gender roles, language, and identity.

Historians of Canada may find the specific subject of the Sioux of little interest. It discusses the Lakota-Dakota, but not the Assiniboine (Nakoda). Still, any historian could do worse than to read chapter 2 to get a hold of some basic archaeological knowledge and debates, not only about the Sioux but about the archaeological study of Aboriginal people more generally. And those who like to inject Aboriginal history into their Canadian history surveys will do well to read Gibbon's warning to those who are satisfied to harbour and disseminate romantic stereotypes about Aboriginal people. He explains quite well how 'overly positive, romantic, even utopian stereotypes are as problematic and often as harmful as are negative images.'

Those interested in the history of the Sioux in Canada will be disappointed in this book. Understandably, its coverage of Canadian Dakota is relatively slight - fewer than 10 per cent of the Sioux live in Canada today. But Gibbon seems ill informed about Canadian history. His discussion of the Sioux in Canada during the 1930s does not include a single citation. Peter Douglas Elias's Dakota of the Canadian Northwest (1988) does not appear in the bibliography. As far as Gibbon is concerned, Rupert's Land was 'Canada' long before 1869.

Despite this weakness, The Sioux deserves a place on the bookshelf of those who specialize in the scholarly study of Sioux history. It is an intelligent, sophisticated, and challenging book that suggests fruitful new avenues of research and inquiry...