| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 38.2

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| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 38.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Sovereign Selves: American Indian Autobiography and the Law. By David J. Carlson. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006. viii + 217 pp. Notes, bibliography, index. $30.00, paper.)

Situating his book within the field of law and literature scholarship, Carlson addresses two major questions: how has the colonial discourse of American Indian law shaped Indian identity, and how have Indian writers portrayed their legally-influenced identities through the medium of autobiography? In order to answer these questions, Carlson traces Indian writers' use of legalistic language through several generations. His most extensive analysis centers on the writings of William Apess and Charles Eastman, who both wrote a series of autobiographical texts. Carlson forcibly demonstrates the impact of Lockean social contract theory on Apess's arguments for individual rights and convincingly shows the influence of legal models of government paternalism and possessive individualism on Eastman's early support for the policy of allotment. The book is most engaging when Carlson illustrates Eastman's rejection of complete assimilation in favor of "a hybrid blend of liberalism and ethnically grounded self awareness" that prefigures present-day notions of Indian sovereignty (p. 164).

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