Indians in the Making: Ethnic Relations and Indian Identities around Puget Sound

by Alexandra Harmon

In the Puget Sound region of Washington state, indigenous peoples and their descendants have a long history of interaction with settlers and their descendants. Indians in the Making offers the first comprehensive account of these interactions, from contact with traders of the 1820s to the Indian fishing rights activism of the 1970s. In this thoroughly researched history, Alexandra Harmon also provides a theoretically sophisticated analysis that charts shifting notions of Indian identity, both in native and in nonnative communities.

During the period under consideration, each major shift in demographic, economic, and political conditions precipitated new deliberations about how to distinguish Indians from non-Indians and from each other. By chronicling such dialogues over 150 years, this groundbreaking study reveals that Indian identity has a complex history. Examining relations in various spheres of life—labor, public ceremony, marriage and kinship, politics and law—Harmon shows how Indians have continually redefined themselves. Her focus on the negotiations that have given rise to modern Indian identity makes a significant contribution to the discourse of contemporary multiculturalism and ethnic studies.

Genres: History

402 pages, Paperback

First published December 16, 1998

Reviews

[Matteo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book about the Northwest that tells the complicated story of the interaction between the indigenous inhabitants and the 'pioneers'.
This book has a broader geographical outlook, encompassign all of Puget Sound, and focuses on the construction and meaning of an 'indian' identity (hence the title). In short: when the first white settlers arrived, the various native tribes did not have a common identity that grouped them all together in a category that was different from that of the settlers. Rather, their bonds were primarily tribal - even though tribal affiliation was itself a fluid thing.
The book traces the evolution of these identities and their representations over time, describing the conflicting attitudes of both native people and whites.

Another complex story told intelligently and compellingly.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harmon's experience as a lawyer really adds a dimension to this study on the Puget Sound Indians and Native identity. She writes sensitively and well--basically arguing that while identity remains a critical point of self-expression, it is nevertheless a fluid concept. As well, Harmon analyzes the interactions between U.S. government policies and Puget Sound Native peoples and the ways in which those interactions both fostered and impeded a sense of pan-Indian identity.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting history of the indigenous people of Puget Sound, with specific focus on their conception of ethnic/community identity and self-definition in relation to outsiders, and how these changed over time - both due to pressures imposed by white settlers and officials, and due to native people’s choices and responses. Harmon provides a well-balanced narrative: while identifying larger trends and tendencies, she also captures the diversity of local indigenous thought, culture, and action, and avoids painting the story with too broad a brush.

The writing could be a bit dense and intimidating for someone who isn’t used to reading works written in an academic style, or who isn’t already familiar with the broad outlines of the region’s history and the geography of the people and places involved. That said, you could certainly still go for it if this subject matter interests you. But if you’re looking for something to read on your own, another book I’ve read that I might recommend is “Native Seattle: Histories from the Crossing-Over Place” by Coll Thrush. This book still does a good job of covering Native people’s active role in the region’s history and in shaping their own identity; meanwhile, the story is less geographically complex and a bit more accessible to a casual reader.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and insightful.

While the main purpose is going over the history of how Indian identity was formed in the area, it was inspired but a case on fishing rights, and that has been such a key issue in the Northwest that the book puts a lot of context in place even for things that happened later.

[Emily Wagner · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of meticulously researched information, writing style is incredibly dry.

[Julian Pritchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really well written and researched, this book raises a lot of important questions about how Indian ethnicity is defined and the legal and political challenges of defining it.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the time this book was published (1998), Harmon's works was more revolutionary than it appears to be now, and having just read at least half a dozen books with similar themes, I was a bit bored. However, it is worth noting her key and entwined themes: 1) Indian identity and race wasn't nearly as concrete in the minds of the aboriginals as it was in colonizers- this identity was created by colonialism; 2) that the idea of "tribes" are also a mutable construction along with race; 3) she criticizes the idea that "change erodes Indians", contributing to the modernity discussion; and 4) examines how boundaries between indigenous people and colonizers in the Pacific NW were created and renegotiated over time. Finally, the overarching theme around which this work is centered was using her legal background as council to the Suquamish tribe, to ask how the Indians of the Pacific NW can use and argue their separate and enduring land identity to make land claims within the bounds of US laws.

If this region is of particular interest to you, then i recommend the work, otherwise, you can find other more recent works in your area of interest that rely on the same arguments.