| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.3

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 207 words from this article are provided below; about 432 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Ruth Spack. America's Second Tongue: American Indian Education and the Ownership of English, 1860–1900. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 2002. Pp. ix, 231. $45.00.

According to an elder of a Columbia River Plateau Indian nation, a tribal member who does not know the language does not know the culture. This statement has evoked a wide range of responses, but to me, it suggests the many ramifications of what it means to know one's language. Ruth Spack's book opens a discussion on one of the most sensitive but perhaps least understood aspects of colonialism toward American Indians/Alaska Natives: the issue of linguistic imperialism. Although scholars in this field have long known that Euroamerican schools for Indian children tried to eliminate Native languages, almost no one wrote about Indian education until the 1970s. Some thirty years later, about two dozen books have appeared, most focusing on federal Indian boarding schools, which dominated Indian schooling between the 1880s and the 1920s. Their authors invariably mention the issue of linguistic imperialism, but not as a primary focus. Hence, by targeting language as a critical weapon of cultural colonialism, Spack introduces the theme of linguistic violence as integral to understanding Native history. . . .

There are about 432 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.