Fixico, Donald L.
2000 The Urban Indian Experience in America. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Notes: ISBN: 0826322158.Reviewed 15 May 2002 by:
Raymond A. Bucko <bucko@creighton.edu>
Creighton University, Omaha Nebraska, USAMedium: Written Literature Subject
Keywords:Indians of North America - Urban residence - United States
ABSTRACT: This work chronicles the governmental, historical, cultural, social, health and economic realities of the American Indian population who relocated from U.S. reservations to cities beginning in 1951 under the governmentÆs Bureau of Placement and Relocation. It contends that despite many difficulties, unique and viable Urban Indian cultures have been established in many of cities.
As historian and director of the Center for Indigenous Nations Studies Program (http://www.ukans.edu/~insp/) at the University of Kansas (http://www.ukans.edu/), Donald Fixico has provided a rich multidisciplinary ethnohistory of urban Native Americans that details the governmental process of urban relocation from the 1950s to the present. This insightful text focuses on government programs such as the 1951 Bureau of Placement and Relocation experimental program to move Indian people from a small number of selected reservations into urban areas. This program was expanded in 1952 to the rest of the United States. Relocation intensified from 1956-1957 while the government struggled with maintaining a proper trust relationship with these relocated but still sovereign and culturally distinct peoples. New and expanded programs such as the Indian Health Service, Indian Vocation Training Act, the Indian Health Task Force on Alcoholism, Indian Health Care Improvement Act, and Indian Child Welfare Act, were hoped to have positive effects for Indian peoples struggling to make their way in the new urban environment.The author examines the impact of urban life on Native peoples including their difficulties in maintaining their identity and tradition. Away from the reservations, drugs, alcoholism, prejudice, financial troubles, self-image, and marginalization were constant obstacles. Fixico balances portraits of their sometimes overwhelming struggles in this new environment with their resilience that is both adaptative and innovative. Indians are shown as actors, making their own history, rather than passive individuals manipulated by the outside world.
By beginning each chapter with an episode in a fictionalized saga of a typical relocated Native family, and by including a rich variety of urban Native voices from a wide variety of tribes and cultures, Fixico makes their experience very real to his audience. He integrates statistics and program details with lives and experiences to provide the reader with a rounded understanding of their trials and triumphs. Native peoples are shown to rely on family structure, culture, voluntary associations such as Urban Indian Centers, the growth of urban Pan-Indianism, religious affiliations and Church support, commonality of experiences, health clinics, survival schools, and training programs to establish themselves firmly in these new areas and craft their own distinctive culture. Fixico estimates that a million Indians have gone to urban areas since the beginnings of the relocation programs. While many returned to the reservations, and most return for visits, census figures show that the urban Indian population had already surpassed the reservation population by at least 1990. Bringing the narrative right up to our century, Fixico points out that there now are third and fourth generation urban Natives and that some have even entered the middle class while still retaining their distinct identities.
Despite the numerical predominance of non-reservation Indians, research remains decidedly focused on the reservations and their past. Fixico effectively addresses a critical gap in scholarship, reminding us that Indian cultural heterogeneity lies not only in language and ethnic group but also in geographical location. While urban Indians remain politically and academically invisible to outsiders, they are certainly prominent in 21st century Native American experience. Fixico succeeds in representing urban Natives as culturally and communally strong and distinct, not simply epiphenomenal or ôless thanö reservation Indians or the many idealistic but inaccurate stereotypes of popular imagination.
I only have two concerns with this book. The first is his confused geography. Fixico inaccurately claims that Rapid City, South Dakota is the off-reservation town associated with the Yankton Reservation (p.87). The driving distance between these locations is in fact 363 miles, while Yankton SD is 80 miles from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Rapid City is closer to the Pine Ridge Reservation, about 110 driving miles. A town closer to Pine Ridge, notorious for its alcohol vending is White Clay, Nebraska, two miles away from Pine Ridge.
Second, I disagree with the authorÆs characterizations and presumptions of mixed blood Indians. He states that living in unity with all things ôwould be more true among Native Americans closer to their tribal traditions than among mixed bloods, who live by the values of Anglo-American societyö (p.52). Further, he claims ôsometimes the biggest racists against Indians were Indians (mixed-bloods) themselves, who could pass as whitesö (p.176). Finally, he states, ôFull-blood urban Indians epitomize the urban Indian experience. They have no choice because they physically look Indian (although they may be mistaken for another minority)à. Of the urban Indian population, which is also comprised of many mixed-bloods, the full-blood usually bears the brunt of demeaning stereotypes and negative remarksö (p.184). Notions of ôfull-bloodö and ômixed-bloodö are cultural more than genetic markers. Looking Indian is not coterminous with acting Indian as IÆve been told many times on the reservation where I worked. Some ômixed-bloodsö seem very Indian and may not necessarily adapt as easily to urban ways even if they ôlook whiteö as the author suggests. Finally, ômixed-bloodsö who are raised culturally Indian and strongly identify as such, may look non-Indian and be caught in a double bind in urban areas where neither Indian nor whites are willing to accept them as Indian.
This work has been reviewed in the Journal of American Ethnic History 21(2) 2002: 124-5. Don Fixico has also written a short article on Urban Indians that is posted to the web http://www.networkchicago.com/chicagostories/donfixico.htm. You can also find FixicoÆs picture and biography on the University of KansasÆ Web Page http://www.clas.ku.edu/history/Faculty%20Subfields/Indigenous%20Nations%20Faculty.htm . An earlier work by Fixico on this same topic is entitled Urban Indians. While it lacks the sophisticated analysis of the present work and is outdated for many of its factual elements, it has a wealth of photographs and a section on the pre-European-contact urban Native cultures which the present work lacks. He also wrote about the federal government in his Termination and Relocation: Federal Indian Policy, 1945-1960. (For these and other materials on this under-researched topic, see the appendix below.)
I highly recommend this book as a rigorous work of ethnohistory that can introduce readers to a largely misunderstood and understudied reality of Native life. Well written, engaging and filled with pathos, humor and triumph, the work creates a fuller picture of contemporary Indian life and stands as a corrective to stereotypes of Indians as people of the past and as inadaptable.
References:
Fixico, Donald Lee 1991 Urban Indians. New York: Chelsea House.
Fixico, Donald Lee 1986 Termination and Relocation: Federal Indian Policy, 1945-1960. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
AppendixTo substantiate my sense that there is little in the way of full-length studies of urban natives, I did an electronic search in the library catalogs of Indiana University, the Library of Congress, the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, the University of Toronto, and Yale University. This list is provided below in chronological order, supplemented with citations from The Urban Indian Experience in America.
Wilson, Edmund 1960 Apologies to the Iroquois: With a Study of the Mohawks in High Steel by Joseph Mitchell. New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy.
Indian-Eskimo Association of Canada 1960 The urban Indian Canadian: a handlist of voluntary organizations working with people of Indian background in Canada's towns and cities. Toronto.
Levine, Stuart, and Nancy O Lurie 1965 The American Indian Today. Baltimore: Penguin Books.
Feldmann-Laschin, G. R. 1966 Income and expenditure patterns of urban Indian households; Durban survey. Pretoria,: Bureau of Market Research University of South Africa.
Hauptman, Laurence M. 1968 The Iroquois Struggle for Survival, World War II to Red Power. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
Steiner, Stan 1968 The New Indians. New York: Dell Publishing Company.
Harkins, Arthur M., I. Karon Sherarts, and Richard G. Woods 1970 Urban Indian education in Minneapolis: an interim analysis of survey materials gathered from school officials and influential persons. Minneapolis,: Training Center for Community Programs University of Minnesota.
Hertzberg, Hazel 1971 The Search for an American Indian Identity: Moderm Pan-Indian Movements. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
Neils, Elaine M 1971 Reservation to City: Indian Migration and Federal Relocation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Waddell, Jack O., and O. Michael Watson 1971 The American Indian in urban society. Boston,: Little Brown.
Kerri, James N. 1973 American Indians (U.S. & Canada): a bibliography of contemporary studies and urban research. Monticello, Ill.,: Council of Planning Librarians.
Waddell, Jack O., and O. Michael Watson 1973 American Indian urbanization. Lafayette, Ind.: Institute for the Study of Social Change Purdue University.
Chaudhuri, Joyotpaul 1974 Urban Indians of Arizona--Phoenix, Tucson, and Flagstaff. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Weaver, Thomas (ed.) 1974 Indians of Arizona: A Contemporary Perspective. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Stanbury, W. T. 1975 Success and Failure: Indians in Urban Society. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Maestas, John R (ed.) 1976 Contemporary Native American Address. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press.
United States. American Indian Policy Review Commission. Task Force Eight. 1976 Report on urban and rural non-reservation Indians : final report to the American Indian Policy Review Commission. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off.
Oregon. Bureau of Labor. 1977 Urban Indian youth in Oregon : report on an inquiry. Salem: Oregon Bureau of Labor.
Ryan, Joan 1978 Wall of words : the betrayal of the urban Indian. Toronto: PMA Books.
Sorkin, Alan L. 1978 The urban American Indian. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books.
Taylor, Michael, and Denver Museum of Natural History. 1978 The Urban Indian experience : a Denver portrait : moccasins on pavement. Denver: Denver Museum of Natural History.
Bramstedt, Wayne G. 1979 A bibliography of North American Indians in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the urban Indian capital. Monticello, Ill.: Vance Bibliographies.
Krotz, Larry, and John Paskievich 1980 Urban Indians : the strangers in Canada's cities. Edmonton, Alta.: Hurtig.
Brown, Donald Nelson, and Oklahoma State University. College of Arts and Sciences Extension. Crossroads Oklahoma Project. 1981 Crossroads Oklahoma : the urban Indian experience in Oklahoma. Stillwater, Okla.: Crossroads Oklahoma Project College of Arts and Sciences Extension Oklahoma State University.
Ortiz, Alfonso 1981 Urban Indians : proceedings of the third annual conference on problems and issues concerning American Indians today. Chicago, Ill.: Newberry Library ;.
Waddell, Jack O., and O. Michael Watson 1984 The American Indian in urban society. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Fixico, Donald Lee 1986 Termination and Relocation: Federal Indian Policy, 1945-1960. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Beck, David 1988 The Chicago American Indian community, 1893-1988 : annotated bibliography and guide to sources in Chicago. Chicago, Ill.: NAES College Press.
Indian Nations At Risk Task Force., United States. National Advisory Council on Indian Education., and National Indian Education Association. Conference 1990 Urban Indian education. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Education.
Kramer, B. Josea, et al. 1990 Study of urban American Indian aging. Washington, D.C.: Administration on Aging Dept. of Health and Human Services.
United States. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on Indian Affairs. 1990 The Urban Indian Health Equity Act : report (to accompany S. 2645) . Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O. United States. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on Indian Affairs. 1990 Urban Indian health equity bill. Washington: U.S. G.P.O. : For sale by the Supt. of Docs. Congressional Sales Office U.S. G.P.O.
Danziger, Edmund Jr. 1991 Survival and Regenration, Detroit's American Indian Community. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Fixico, Donald Lee 1991 Urban Indians. New York: Chelsea House.
Weible-Orlando, Joan 1991 Indian Country, L.A.: Maintaining Ethnic Community in Complex Society. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Frazier, Gregory W., and National Urban Indian Council (U.S.) 1993 Urban Indians : drums from the cities. Denver, Colo.: Arrowstar Publishing.
Davis, Mary B 1994 Native America in the Twentieth Century. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.
Johnson, Troy R. 1996 The occupation of Alcatraz Island : Indian self-determination and the rise of Indian activism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
King, Adrienne Jean 1998 Urban indians, people of color and the Albuquerque Police Department (MA) . Tucson: University of Arizona.
Straus, Terry, and Grant Arndt (eds.) 1998 Native Chicago. Chicago: McNaughton and Gunn, Inc.
Barron, F. L., and Joseph Garcea 1999 Urban Indian reserves : forging new relationships in Saskatchewan. Saskatoon, Sask., Canada: Purich Pub.
Fixico, Donald Lee 2000 The urban Indian experience in America. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Lobo, Susan (ed.) 2002 Urban Voices: The Bay Area American Indian Community, Community History Project, Intertribal Friendship House, Oakland, California. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
To cite this review, the American Anthropological Association recommends the following style:
Bucko, Raymond A.
2002 Review of The Urban Indian Experience in America. Anthropology Review Database. May 15. Electronic document, http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/cgi/showme.cgi?keycode=1539, accessed February 10, 2010.© Anthropology Review Database
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