The Struggle for Self-Determination: History of the Menominee Indians since 1854 by David R. M. Beck

Book Reviews 129 to avoid an incipient trade war, but unions and parts suppliers were wary. After the agreement was signed on January 15, 1965, two-way free trade in auto products went into effect, with certain limits in regard to national content and manufacturer qualifications. In principle, it gave Canadians a "fair share" of the market, although it had detractors, among them some members of the U.S. Congress, where Senator Al Gore, Sr., led an effort to repeal it.The provisions of the pact, however, held until they were replaced by the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement of 1989. Anastakis explains an intense subject in a straightforward manner, including ample presentations of quantitative data in tabular form. The sixteen pages of black-and-white photos are well produced, which is uncommon in an academic book, and they add context to the narrative. The index is a bit sparse, consisting mosdy of names and locations, but an extensive bibliography gives generous scope for further investigation. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in international trade, the automotive industry, or U.S.-Canadian relations. Kit Foster Society of Automotive Historians David R. M. Beck. The Struggle for Self-Determination: History of the Menominee Indians since 1854. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005. Pp. 290. Bibliography. Figure. Illustrations. Index. Maps. Photographs. Tables. Cloth, $49.95. In The Struggle for S elf-Determination: History of theMenominee Indians since 1854, David Beck provides more than a tribal history of Wisconsin's Menominee Indians. Beginning with the immediate post treaty period, Beck's narrative provides us with a clear, defensible, and well-reasoned explanation of how the Menominees more than merely survived attempts in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to diminish their land base, steal their resources, and even terminate their tribal status. This work is so much more than a study of survival; instead, it is a model of how the evolving theoretical use of agency can serve to explain native history, either on tribal, national, or regional levels. What is perhaps most refreshing about this work is that Beck moves beyond the traditional or simple chronology to a substantive thematic analysis of theMenominee experience over the past century and a half. As a way of introducing this study, the author explains with exceptional clarity and expertise the treaties that created and further defined the Menominee reservation inWisconsin. Further, Beck proves 130 Michigan Historical Review his theories regarding Menominee survival and resistance very early on in his description and analysis of the impact of post-treaty missionary activity and economic assault through the outright theft of Menominee timber in the late-nineteenth century. What is unique and refreshing about Beck's approach, however, is that he never paints the Menominees as a unified body struggling against outside forces of manipulation and oppression. Rather, at every step in his analysis he thoughtfully and clearly explains the cultural, geographic, and political divisions within Menominee society. This is especially important because in later years, particularly during and immediately following the termination period, the tribe was anything but unified in either its response to outside pressures or internal debates. Although the author incorporates the more traditional categories of analysis in his book, he also includes environmental assessments of the Menominee economy and culture. The timber destruction caused by a catastrophic 1905 storm seems to have defined much of the Menominee experience in the twentieth century. But even this portion of the story incorporates a strong emphasis on Indian action? agency?in response to what was at best governmental inaction and at worst more nefarious federal action. Indeed, the main theme of The Strugglefor Self Determination, from the treaty period though restoration and to the present, is that "tribal members, reeling from . . . rapid changes, had to find ways to persevere" (p. 78). At every turn and in every chapter this point is driven home, always with strong evidence and a riveting narrative. The postwar years witnessed a new set of challenges for the Menominee tribe and reservation. And in this period the federal policy of termination focused keenly on Wisconsin's Menominees. The policy's proponents hoped that terminating individual tribes on a case...

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