Indian Metropolis: Native Americans in Chicago, 1945-75

by James B. LaGrand

American Indians urbanized more quickly in the second half of the twentieth century than any other racial or ethnic group in the country. This dynamic social history focuses on Chicago during a thirty-year period of remarkable demographic growth that saw the city's American Indian population increase by twentyfold.

More than an outgrowth of public policy implemented by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the exodus of American Indians from reservations to cities was linked to broader patterns of social and political change after World War II. Indian Metropolis places the Indian people within the context of many of the twentieth century's major themes, including rural to urban migration, the expansion of the wage labor economy, increased participation in and acceptance of political radicalism, and growing interest in ethnic nationalism.

Drawing on community newsletters, periodicals, oral histories, and census materials, James B. LaGrand examines American Indians' migration patterns, early efforts to secure employment and housing, methods of adjusting to urban life, and the ways they balanced the influences of urban environment with tribal practices in education, religion, recreation, and politics. What emerged was a new Indian identity intertwined with urban life. This first historical case study of Indian urbanization demonstrates the profound effects of this pan-Indian identity on both urban and reservation Indian communities.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 23, 2002

Reviews

[Viral · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a solid piece of history, detailing the forces and motivations that drew Midwestern Indigenous communities to move to Chicago during and after WWII, and the corresponding community that they built up and how they engaged with urban life. The book itself is fairly dry and I wish it extended past 1975, it felt like an arbitrary cutoff point that narrows the analytical capacity of this book. But still useful and I did learn some about Chicago urban Native history!