Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
2006
Abstract
The notion that the federal government's relationship with Native American nations has been chronically "confused" is one of the most familiar truisms in American history. Countless commentators have chronicled the ebb and flow of federal Indian policy among the wildy disparate goals of extinguishment, displacement, assimilation, and self-determination. Given the widespread acceptance of that fundamental premise, Tom Holm's The Great Confusion in Indian Affairs may at first glance appear to offer only superfluous support for an already obvious point. Fortunately, however, Holm's work offers a good deal more than mere reiteration, providing subtly significant new insights into the nuances of the federal government's never-ending attempts to deal effectively with what was often perceived to be its "Indian problem."
Comments
Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 26:4 (Fall 2006). Copyright © 2006 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.