| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.1

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Katherine M. B. Osburn. Southern Ute Women: Autonomy and Assimilation on the Reservation, 1887–1934. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 1998. Pp. xiv, 165. Cloth $45.00, paper $19.95.

In her brief, informative work on Southern Ute women from 1887 to 1934, Katherine M. B. Osburn argues that they selectively accommodated and resisted assimilation efforts undertaken by the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) and various benevolent organizations. Although the OIA succeeded in virtually every assimilation initiative, including the alteration of subsistence activities, political structures, residential patterns, educational responsibilities, marriage customs, and gender roles, Osburn nevertheless concludes that Southern Ute women maintained a high degree of status and power. She notes that after the formation of the reservation and the subsequent allotment of tribal land, women continued to be essential in the production of food, clothing, shelter, and children. Just as their productive and reproductive importance granted them equal status in the early part of the nineteenth century, the instability of the Ute economy continued to reinforce gender equity and thus undermined the OIA's effort to impose a gendered society. 1

In the assimilation period, according to Osburn, interactions between Utes and the OIA reshaped the culture of each. Rather than passively acquiescing to the dictates of assimilation policies, Ute women actively participated in change, and in the process, modified those around them. Osburn surveys Southern Ute women's experiences in public leadership, economics, homemaking, sex, and marriage, identifying examples of female autonomy and influence. By comparing women's and men's responses to assimilation policies and programs, she brings the customs and attitudes of women into greater focus. . . .

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