Waging Sovereignty: Native Americans and the Transformation of Work in the Twentieth Century - Softcover

Colleen O’Neill

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1469693283 ISBN 13: 9781469693286

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2026

Synopsis

Native workers' rights are sovereignty rights Wage work was supposed to “kill the Indian and save the man,” or so thought Richard Pratt and other late nineteenth-century policymakers. Nevertheless, even as American Indians entered the workforce, they remained connected to their lands and cultures. In this powerful history of resilience and transformation, Colleen O'Neill uncovers the creative strategies Native workers employed to subvert assimilation and fight for justice in the workplace, their collective strength expanding the very meaning of sovereignty. Drawing on federal archives, Native memoirs, oral histories, and field research, O'Neill traces a sweeping story that stretches from the era of boarding schools to the contemporary world of high-stakes gaming. For more than a century, federal policymakers tried to reshape Native lives through labor. In some cases, children were sent to pick crops and scrub settlers' homes. In others, families were relocated to distant cities for permanent year-round jobs that were designed to replace traditional seasonal labor and lifestyle patterns. But Native workers persevered. They rebuilt their communities, fought to reclaim control of the reservation workplace, and developed distinctive institutions to defend their cultural, political, and economic sovereignty. As Waging Sovereignty illuminates, wage work was a focal point of assimilationist efforts and, in turn, labor became a key factor in Native workers’ anti-colonial struggle.

About this title

About the Author

Colleen O'Neill is associate professor of history at Utah State University.

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1469693283
• ISBN 13: 9781469693286
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240