New South Indians: Tribal Economics and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians by Christopher Arris-Oakley (review)

In New South Indians: Tribal Economics and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Arris-Oakley (associate professor Eastern Carolina University, non-Native) presents a case study of Indigenous economics via the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) that sets a place at southern history's table for American Indians while acting as a much-needed contemporary augment to John Finger's Cherokee Americans: The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in the Twentieth Century (1991). The material spans the 1830s through 1990s, addressing key moments in the economic history of the EBCI with a particular emphasis on government-driven initiatives.

The book begins by describing the creation of the EBCI's Baker Roll (the founding census for its current enrollment), the launch of EBCI businesses (both governmental, as in lumber, and individual, with farming and wage labor), the status of EBCI assets, and the creation of the now famous EBCI Cherokee Fall Fair. Chapter two covers the creation of federal policies that impacted Native Nations, from the New Deal and the Indian Reorganization Act, to the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, alongside the growth of the tourism industry on the Qualla Boundary. Chapter three moves to post-World War II, describing a time also known as the Termination Era when Native Nations came under attack by a federal government intent on washing its hands of Native Nations through dissolution measures. This chapter ties these national actions to the establishment of the influential Cherokee Historical Association, along with the creation of the Unto these Hills play, Oconaluftee Village, Museum of the Cherokee Indian, and the Qualla Arts and Crafts Cooperative, as the tourism industry rapidly increased. The book then moves to the issues of increasing China-made crafts competition and EBCI government attempts at diversification from the tourism behemoth. Chapters four and five break the last quarter of a century into two parts (the 1970s, then the 1980s with a bit of the 1990s).

Chapter four looks at the pendulum swing of federal policy back to support of tribal sovereignty and the subsequent EBCI government actions to increase its autonomy through an expansion of its powers, as well as the continued promotion of the tourism industry along with associated challenges, and further attempts by the EBCI government at specifically tribal enterprise diversification, ending with the creation of the Cherokee Boys Club. Chapter five critiques Reaganonmics' impact on Native Nations, introduces the topic of gaming through the Indian Gaming and Regulatory Act and gives a brief background to the opening of the EBCI's first large-scale casino.

The stated goals of this work are threefold. First, an examination of twentieth century Indigenous economics and a tribal perspective (of the tribe, not from within) that looks at twentieth century Indigenous economics. Second, to "incorporate Native Americans into contemporary southern history." Finally, to "augment" and "build on earlier works to focus on the economic actions of the Cherokee Tribal Council." The weakest point of the three is the first. There is a marked lack of engagement not only with current economic theory (broadly, as well as specifically Indigenous), but also with a critical number of researchers working in the region, with the EBCI, and in Indigenous economic subfields (particularly historical and anthropological economics). This will limit this work's usefulness, especially in the classroom. Engagement such as this would have also helped to avoid inaccurate statements, such as Arris-Oakley's claim that the homeland of the Cherokee people, in what are now called the Appalachian Mountains, was "unwanted land"—a claim that the EBCI nation (well before it was federally recognized as such) and its citizens have refuted for over two centuries (p. 10).

The second goal of incorporation consists of two unstated parts: to place this material within southern historical literature and, conversely, to incorporate southern history into this study. As...