Say We Are Nations: Documents of Politics and Protest in Indigenous America since 1887 ed. by Daniel M. Cobb (review)

In Say We Are Nations, Daniel Cobb, an associate professor in American studies at the University of North Carolina, has compiled a collection of fifty-five primary documents about politics and protest in Indian Country since 1887. Building on his earlier publications, including the edited collection Beyond Red Power and Native Activism in the Cold War, Cobb demonstrates an expansive definition of activism and the historical practice of protest. Cobb describes the selected texts as representing a "geographic, topical, temporal, and interpretive breadth" and invites readers to continue "intellectual excavation" of politics and protest (5). The politically purposeful actions demonstrated in the documents firmly illustrate individuals' positionality in relation to other forms of activism and the social discussion, debate, and discord within the Indigenous community. Cobb meticulously traces the historical connections and social networks of community members. Further, he brings attention to the various approaches and language utilized to garner greater understanding and support from non-Indians. For example, Cobb describes the process of some community members utilizing the Cold War political environment and construction of "American" to publicly frame opposition to their calls for equality as un-American.

This compilation, which is chronologically and thematically arranged and divided into five chapters ("Contesting Citizenship, 1887–1924," "Reclaiming a Future, 1934–1954," "Demanding Civil Rights of a Different Order, 1954–1968," "Declaring Continuing Independence, 1969–1994," and "Testing the Limits, 1994–2015"), offers insight into the protests of Indigenous communities in Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, and the continental United States and places those protests in international and national contexts. Prior to each document, Cobb offers a preface with brief commentary and a contextualization of the material; as a result, he highlights important questions for the reader to consider. With a document by Edward Dozier, Santa Clara Pueblo, Cobb asks, "How did [Dozier] counter misconceptions about the federal trust relationship and assuage the anxieties regarding diversity, pluralism, and multiculturalism that pervaded the majority society during the era of the Cold War?" (115). By prompting the reader with guiding questions, Cobb brings attention to the interconnection of issues and the manner in which individuals navigated politics.

The material Cobb has selected represents an attempt to highlight the interconnection of various Indigenous protest for over one hundred years, overwhelmingly during the twentieth century. The collection is a useful resource to both teachers and students, particularly those in any twentieth-century history classes. Cobb shares the role the upper-division students taking his Native Politics and Activism since 1887 class played; their interest and attention helped inform the anthology. Through his material selection, Cobb challenges the absence of Indians in many mainstream discussions on political activism and their general absence during many contemporary discussions.

He reiterates that the book is not meant to be an exhaustive representation of every tribal community; however, one could question the limited inclusion of documents from any California Native community. California is the third largest state, home to 110 federally recognized tribes, and according to the last census, it has the largest American Indian and Alaskan Native population. In 1958 the United States Congress targeted over forty California reservations and rancherias for termination, resulting in decades-long battles to regain federal recognition. Cobb's one brief mention specific to California tribal communities is the 1987 Cabazon decision, which paved the way for tribal gaming across the country. This landmark decision facilitated Native communities' political clout in numerous states, largely through lobbying and contributions. Unfortunately, without context, Cobb leaves the reader perhaps viewing California tribal communities as a population without any historical political protest or thinking that the first form of activism in the state occurred in 1969 with the successful occupation of Alcatraz Island in the Bay Area. Indeed, tribal communities from California, Wyoming, Colorado, Minnesota, Florida, Maine, and additional states do not appear on his map entitled "Indigenous...