Book Review

Clearing a Path: Theorizing the Past in Native American Studies. Edited by Nancy Shoemaker. (New York: Routledge, 2002. xiii + 215 pp. Bibliography, index. $80.00, cloth; $21.95, paper.)

In eight provocative essays, university scholars and tribal leaders look at cutting edge theoretical approaches to researching and writing Native American history. Shoemaker, as editor, provides a superb introduction in which she defines and defends theory. She readily admits that theory "can be tricky" because it is not always obvious what it is or does. "If you do not care for the word theory," she writes, "then think instead of these essays as dealing with models, paradigms, perspectives, ideas, narratives, research questions, or analytical frameworks" (pp. vi–viii). Shoemaker borrows a metaphor from Native American diplomacy and ritual ("clearing a path") to suggest that at its best, theory can make it easier for us to see and understand the past.

1

Shoemaker has organized the essays into four sections: 1) narrative and storytelling, 2) social and cultural categories, 3) political economy, and 4) tribal histories, indigenous histories. The divisions generally work well, pairing authors who are wrestling with similar theoretical and methodological demons. In addition to listing footnotes at the ends of their essays, authors, in what seems a model of generosity, have provided extensive compilations of "references," making Clearing a Path an excellent resource for anyone wanting to get familiar with Native American studies. Some of the "references," for instance, are ten or more pages long. Graduate students preparing for general exams or professors trying to work up new courses will find these lists invaluable.

. . .