Say We Are Nations

In this wide-ranging and carefully curated anthology Daniel M. Cobb presents the words of Indigenous people who have shaped Native American rights movements from the late nineteenth century through the present day. Presenting essays letters interviews speeches government documents and other testimony Cobb shows how tribal leaders intellectuals and activists deployed a variety of protest methods over more than a century to demand Indigenous sovereignty. As these documents show Native peoples have adopted a wide range of strategies in this struggle invoking “American” and global democratic ideas about citizenship freedom justice consent of the governed representation and personal and civil liberties while investing them with indigenized meanings.<br/><br/>The more than fifty documents gathered here are organized chronologically and thematically for ease in classroom and research use. They address the aspirations of Indigenous nations and individuals within Canada Hawaii and Alaska as well as the continental United States placing their activism in both national and international contexts. The collection’s topical breadth analytical framework and emphasis on unpublished materials offer students and scholars new sources with which to engage and explore American Indian thought and political action.