"Enduring Nations documents how tribal peoples have adapted to cultural change while shaping midwestern history. Examining the transformation of Native American communities, which often occurred in response to shifting government policy, the contributors explore the role of women, controversial tribal enterprises and economies, social welfare practices, and native peoples' frequent displacement to locations such as reservations and urban centers. Central to both past and contemporary discussions of Native American cultural change is whether Native American identity should be determined by genetics, shared cultural values, or a combination of the two."--Jacket

Illinois Indians in the confluence region: adaptation in a changing world / Alan G. Shackelford -- "Their women quite industrious miners": Native American lead mining in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1788-1832 / Lucy Eldersveld Murphy -- "The hinge on which all affairs of the Sauk and Fox Indians turn": Keokuk and the United States government / Thomas Burnell Colbert -- Ohio Shawnees' struggle against removal, 1814-30 / Stephen Warren -- Jean Baptiste Richardville: Miami métis / Bradley J. Birzer -- Resistance to removal: the "white Indian," Frances Slocum / Susan Sleeper-Smith -- Michigan murder mysteries: death and rumor in the age of Indian removal / Gregory Evans Dowd -- Reworking ethnicity: gender, work roles, and contending redefinitions of the Great Lakes métis, 1820-42 / Rebecca Kugel -- A new seasonal round: government boarding schools, federal work programs, and Ojibwe family life during the Great Depression / Brenda J. Child -- Indian work and Indian neighborhoods: adjusting to life in Chicago during the 1950s / James B. LaGrand -- Blackjack and lumberjack: economic development and cultural identity in Menominee country / Brian Hosmer -- White Earth women and social welfare / Melissa L. Meyer