| Summary: |
Shadow Tribe offers the first in-depth history of the Pacific Northwest's Columbia River Indians--the defiant River People whose ancestors refused to settle on the reservations established for them in central Oregon and Washington. Largely overlooked, their story illuminates the persistence of off-reservation Native communities and the fluidity of their identities over time. Based on more than a decade of archival research and conversations with Native people, Andrew Fisher's book traces the waxing and waning of Columbia River Indian identity from the mid-nineteenth through the late twentieth centuries. Fisher explains how, despite policies designed to destroy them, the shared experience of being off the reservation and at odds with recognized tribes forged far-flung river communities into a loose confederation called the Columbia River Tribe. Environmental changes and political pressures eroded their autonomy during the second half of the twentieth century, yet many River People continued to honor a common heritage of ancestral connection to the Columbia, resistance to the reservation system, devotion to cultural traditions, and detachment from the institutions of federal control and tribal governance. At times, their independent and uncompromising attitude has challenged the sovereignty of the recognized tribes, earning Columbia River Indians a reputation as radicals and troublemakers even among their own people. |
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