B O O K R E V I E W S 395

Apache Reservation: Indigenous People and the Ameri- can State. Richard J. Perry. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993.260 pp.

LOUISE IMPHERE University of N m Mexico

Now that Western movies are making a comeback and a new version of Geronimo has been released, a scholarly book on the history of the Western Apache and the San Carlos reservation is a welcome counterweight to our own media’s construction of the Apache. In much the same vein as Richard White’s study, Th,e Roots of Depen- d m c g (University of Nebraska Press, 1983), this study examines the relationship of various Apache populations first to the Spanish state and then, in the 19th and 20th centuries, to the American state.

Perry begins his book by introducing us to the con- tradictions inherent in the notion of a “reservation”-a land area set aside as a population enclave for indigenous peoplesa concept also relevant to Australia, Canada, and South Africa. In their American form reservations were supposed to be a refuge for dying peoples; in fact, Native American populations increased. Reservations were supposed to be a means of assimilation, but the ethnic identity flourished. Finally, reservations were sup- posed to promote economic development, but they have remained pockets of poverty that Native Americans do not control @. 7). These contradictions are the outcome of state policies, the exercise of state power, and the incorporation, but not assimilation, of Native Americans into the U.S. state.

Drawing primanly on Gramscian notions of hege- mony and Poulantzas’s work on the state, Perry presents several interesting insights including the contrast be- tween the Spanish and the American states. The Spanish state was more rigidly hierarchical with little social mo- bility; the Spanish did not separate natives from their resource base, but used native labor as a resource. The Apache populations were neither incorporated nor paci- fied, and they managed to remain in control of their own resources. The American state, on the other hand, during the expansion of industrial capitalism, embarked on poli- cies that first eroded Apache sovereignty and then led to the conquest of the Apache. The founding of the San Carlos reservation ushered in the creation of a reservation political economy in which the Apache became bound tightly to the U.S. state, dependent on wage labor and various forms of subsidies (such as welfare, social secu- rity, and food stamps).

The book includes a good analysis of the develop- ment of the copper industry in Arizona (first encouraged by the return of copper-bearing Apache reservation lands to nonreservation status). The connections between the reservation, the tribal council, the constitution, the Bu- reau of Indian Affairs, and the Secretary of the Interior are

also well documented, so readers can see clearly that Apache development is not something the residents of San Carlos control. Perry offers a glimmer of hope through the example of the White Mountain Apache who have been able to develop a tourist industry around trophy-elk hunt- ing licenses @p. 227-228).

This book has its disappointments, however. At times I wished for a clearer historical narrative, where the tim- ing and personnel involved in events were more vividly portrayed through quotations from primary historical documents. For example, John Gregory Bourke is charac- terized as offering a vivid sense of the era when General George Crook defeated the Apache in 1871 @p. 115-1 16), and he was present at Crook’s negotiations with Geronimo in 1886 (pp. 126-127). However, Bourke’s own voice is absent from Perry’s text, leaving us with a second- hand sense of Bourke’s sympathetic views of the Apaches.

Finally, the chapter “San Carlos after Mid-Century” is a composite of Perry’s own field experiences and pub- lished materials. It seems more a patchwork of anecdotes on a wide variety of topics-including kinship, ritual, and education-than a sustained ethnographic description. In addition, the author’s distanced tone in discussing his fieldwork seems out of date in this era, when anthropolo- gists position themselves vis-a-vis those they study and usually render their consultants in less anonymous, ”ob- ject&mgn terms. Nevertheless, those interested both in the history of the Western and Chiricahua Apache and in the creation of dependent reservation political economies will find this a useful book.

Nez Perce Dictionary. Haruo Aoki. University of Califor- nia Publications in Linguistics, 122. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994. 1,280 pp.

BRUCE RIGSBY Th,e University of Quemland

In these days, when aborigmal peoples in countries such as America, Australia, and Canada are concerned with maintaining and strengthening, perhaps even reviv- ing, their imperiled indigenous languages, dictionaries attract a wide readership. It’s not just linguists who read them; indigenous readers go to them too, to learn and to check information, spellings, and the like. Indigenous dictionaries provide basic materials that can be reworked into language-based cultural heritage materials for good, locally relevant cumcula. In fact, dictionaries can and do become part of that ongoing, valorized culture people regard as their tradition.

For over 30 years, Haruo Aoki has been a student of the Nez Perce language. With tkLs splendid dictionary he has achieved the Boasian goal for describing a language, having earlier published a grammar, two collections of texts, and numerous articles and papers.

396 A M E R I C A N A N T H R O P O L O G I S T 0 V O L . 9 7 , N o . 2 0 J U N E 1995

The alphabet used is based upon Americanist con- ventions, but understanding the systems of writing and orthography requires some new learning on the part of readers who are familiar with the English writing system only. Nez Perce words characteristically display a com- plex polysynthetic, multimorphemic structure. Given the rich derivational and inflectional morphology, the possi- ble words of the language are an open set, for practical purposes, at least. Aoki's wise lexicographic solution is to treat the more frequent stems, prefixes, and suffixes that build up words. Many of the entries are taken from the old Nez Perce stories that were narrated by weyi:'ktpu: (Ar- chie Phinney's mother), Agnes Moses, Harry Wheeler, Samuel Watters, and Elizabeth Wilson and published in several books. This corpus ensures that the lexical entries important to indigenous Nez Perce culture and society are included; but words for new phenomena of modern life such as the automobile, radio, refrigerator, and vote are included too.

The main part of the book is a Nez Perce-English dictionary, which contains rich fare for a variety of read- ers. I myself was engaged by the personal names of Chief Joseph (hinmato:'wyalahtq'it, "Thunder travelling to higher areas"), his brother Ollicut (?a'lok'at " Pyoung] male mountain sheep") and "Eagle-from-Flight" (t ipiyek'hne qa:'?awpo:), often mistranslated as "Eagle-from-the- Light." Some entries are enhanced by line drawings of artifacts, animals, and plants, many of them by the author's hand. Then follows a large English-Nez Perce index that directs the reader back to the fuller entries in the dictionary. There are also appendixes on sound-sym- bolic words, animal names, and plant names, many with their Latinate names too, and 20 pages of photographs of people, belongings, structures, activities, and places.

I recommend this magruficent work to any and all persons interested in the Nez Perce people, their lan- guage, and their heritage.

Loud Hawk: Th.e United States versus the American Indian Movement. Kenneth S. Stem. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994.373 pp.

DAVID E. WILKINS University of Arizona

Most scholars writing about modern Indian affairs tend to focus their attention on the plethora of legislation, rules and regulations, or litigation that cumulatively con- stitute what is usually called Indian Self-Determination. This and other positive results were achieved because tribal people and their growing number of allies openly discussed-for the first time since the late 1800s-terms such as tribal sovereignty, economic sel f -suf l ic img, cultuml regeneration, and political independence (not @-el.

The emergence of self-determination and the dis- avowal of the termination mentahty, legislative victories, and the litany of pending land claims settlements, com- bined with continued Indian social activism, however, fueled a severe backlash among disaffected segments of non-Indian society. It is one aspect of t h backlash-the federal government's 13-year legal battle to discredit, in- timidate, and ultimately destroy the American Indian Movement (AIM)-that is the focus of this book. The story began in 1975 when six members of the AIM, including Dennis Banks (afounder of the organization) and Leonard Peltier, were indicted in Portland, Oregon, on charges of possessing explosives. It would not end until 1988, after more than a decade of pretrial litigation, and prior case dismissals in 1976,1980, 1983, and 1986.

The author, Kenneth S. Stem, a specialist in anti- Semitism with the American Jewish Committee, was a neophyte law student when the case first began. Initially, he was a volunteer for the Indians' legal defense team. Eventually he became a lead counsel and remained inti- mately involved with the case until it was finally con- cluded with Banks's guilty plea. Banks was sentenced to five years' formal probation.

This is not your typical scholastic account of a timely issue. It is atypical in the sense that Stem writes it as a firsthand account. Such proximity to the subject matter is often problematic, especially given the emotional inten- sity Indian issues tend to invoke in interested non-Indians. Stem, however, was able to pull it off.

We witness, on the one hand, his personal evolution from an idealistic lawyer, awed by the historical claims of American Indian tribes and their contemporary manifes- tations in events like Wounded Knee I1 and figures like Dennis Banks, to an experienced adult more aware of the complex nature both'of human beings and of the legal system. On the other hand, we also witness the critical years of AIM-from its beginnings as a dynamic organiza- tion, with its own sense of idealismlsurvivalism, to its slide toward internal fragmentation. This occurred in part as a natural development, but was also undoubtedly aided by the COINTELPRO (counterintelligence program) activi- ties of the FBI that, by spreading rumors through inform- ants within AIM, took a heavy toll on the organization just as it had on the Black Panthers, the Socialist Workers' Party, and other organizations it considered radical.

The main theme of t h book, however, revolves about the unremitting political, legal, and actual war waged by the FBI and the Justice Department, with the sanction of the federal courts, against AIM and its leaders. It is an indepth examination of how "the law" was fre- quently manipulated by the very branches of government entrusted to uphold legal standards.

While this is a vital study, it would have benefited from a succinct historical introduction. Stern does pro- vide some historical material in chapter 9 on the Lakota