Review of Rich Indians: Native People and the Problem of Wealth in American History by Alexandra Harmon

Authors

Kathleen Pickering Sherman, Colorado State University

Date of this Version

Winter 2012

Citation

Great Plains Quarterly 32:1 (Winter 2012).

Comments

Copyright © 2012 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska.

Abstract

Across American history, Native American tribes were impoverished through land and natural resource appropriations accomplished through a wide variety of well-documented political, military, and cultural means. Alexandra Harmon, in her book, provocatively titled Rich Indians, focuses on a handful of exceptions to this statistical pattern to explore American discourses about wealth accumulation by Native Americans. Armed with an impressive collection of primary sources, as well as literature from history and anthropology, Harmon also uncovers parallel discourses by Native Americans themselves about wealth accumulation among their own peoples. The result is a complex, multilayered, and fascinating melange of contradictory attitudes and beliefs that simultaneously promote and disparage the efforts of these "rich Indians."