Southern Ute Women: Autonomy and Assimilation on the Reservation, 1887-1934

by Katherine M. B. Osburn

Overview

After the passage of the Dawes Severalty Act in 1887, the Southern Ute Agency was the scene of an intense federal effort to assimilate the Ute Indians. The Southern Utes were to break up their common land holdings and transform themselves into middle-class patriarchal farm and pastoral families. In this assimilationist scheme, women were to surrender the considerable autonomy they enjoyed in traditional Ute society and become housebound homemakers, the “civilizers” of their fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons. Southern Ute Women shows that these women accommodated Anglo ways that benefited them but refused to give up indigenous culture and ways that gave their lives meaning and bolstered personal autonomy. In spite of federal policies that stripped women of many legal rights, Southern Ute women demanded participation in political, economic, and legal decisions that affected their lives and insisted on retaining control over their marital and sexual behavior.

Katherine M. B. Osburn is a professor of history at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803220386
Publisher:	Nebraska Paperback
Publication date:	01/01/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	1410L (what's this?)

About the Author

Katherine M. B. Osburn is a professor of history at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville.

Table of Contents

Maps
Tables
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE - The People of the Shining Mountains
CHAPTER TWO - Women and Public Leadership
CHAPTER THREE - Women and Economics
CHAPTER FOUR - Homemaking
CHAPTER FIVE - Sex and Marriage
Conclusion
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

“Historians of American Indians have devoted insufficient attention to the distinctive experiences of Native American women, although in recent years a number of scholars have made strides in reversing that trend. With Southern Ute Women, Katherine Osburn helps redress this gap in the historiography. . . . A thoughtful, incisive, and well-written monograph that does much to further our understanding of the dynamic lives of Native American women in the allotment era.”— Steve Amerman, Western Historical Quarterly

Western Historical Quarterly - Steve Amerman

“A well-researched, clearly written account that adds to our understanding of the power dynamic between a dominating federal government and a subordinate, but not completely coerced, reservation population.”— Sherry L. Smith, Agricultural History

Agricultural History - Sherry L. Smith

“[Southern Ute Women] makes a useful contribution to the growing body of scholarship on Native American women.”—Sara H. Hill, American Historical Review

American Historical Review - Sara H. Hill

“[Southern Ute Women] makes a useful contribution to the growing body of scholarship on Native American women.”—Sara H. Hill, American Historical Review

— Sara H. Hill

American Historical Review

“A well-researched, clearly written account that adds to our understanding of the power dynamic between a dominating federal government and a subordinate, but not completely coerced, reservation population.”— Sherry L. Smith, Agricultural History

— Sherry L. Smith

Agricultural History

“Historians of American Indians have devoted insufficient attention to the distinctive experiences of Native American women, although in recent years a number of scholars have made strides in reversing that trend. With Southern Ute Women, Katherine Osburn helps redress this gap in the historiography. . . . A thoughtful, incisive, and well-written monograph that does much to further our understanding of the dynamic lives of Native American women in the allotment era.”— Steve Amerman, Western Historical Quarterly

— Steve Amerman

Western Historical Quarterly