Bartering with the Bones of Their Dead: The Colville Confederated Tribes and Termination

by Laurie Arnold

Bartering with the Bones of their Dead tells the unique story of a tribe whose members waged a painful and sometimes bitter twenty-year struggle among themselves about whether to give up their status as a sovereign nation. Over one hundred federally recognized Indian tribes and bands lost their sovereignty after the Eisenhower Administration enacted a policy known as termination, which was carefully designed to end the federal-Indian relationship and to dissolve Indian identity. Most tribes and bands fought this policy; the Colville Confederated Tribes of north-central Washington State offer a rare example of a tribe who pursued termination.

Some Colville tribal members who favored termination wanted a life free from federal supervision and a return to the era when each band of the confederation managed its own affairs. Other termination advocates simply sought the financial payout that termination promised. Opponents of termination wanted to protect tribal identities and lands, hoped to preserve the Colville heritage and homeland for future generations, and sought to compel the federal government to live up to its promises. Laurie Arnold tells the story of those years on the Colville reservation with the perspective both of a thorough and careful historian and of an insider who grew up listening to the voices and memories of her elders.

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180 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2012

Reviews

[foxfire]

Excellent book, highly recommended for anyone studying Native American history, especially federal termination policy and its impacts on tribes. Great balance of scholarly and oral sources, should serve as an example for anyone looking to write history on/about Native American and Indigenous people.

[mari]

Highly recommend. Super interesting book about a topic I never covered in high school or during my political science degree in U.S. government. Can be a bit dry / history book at times, but still worth a read, especially if you spend time in eastern Washington.

[Josh Reid]

Insightful, behind-the-scenes discussion of the Colvilles' debate over termination. A helpful corrective for anyone who remains surprised that members of tribal nations don't always agree!

[Noah Yeager]

Not a fan of the organization

[Angie]

This is a really good book for those who are interested in Termination Policy. The Colville pushed for Termination, even after the disasters the Menominee and Klamath had after they decided to terminate.

[heather]

A very readable book about the Colville Native Americans and the when they were deciding whether or not to end BIA oversight.

I was reading this for a book club and ran out of time.

[Billy Marino]

More of a 3.5, but yeah, no half stars here. It's a really great book, well worth the read if you're interested in learning more about Termination and how the Colville Confederated Tribes dealt with it, which is a quite unique story. The only reason I'm not rating it the 4 star, "I Really Like it" is because I have a hard time "really liking" anything that's specifically policy based. That being said, this is a readable book as far as its content, I just struggle to ever really enjoy policy based books. It should also be noted that I had to read this during the week before a spring break that came 3 weeks too late in the semester, so that certainly doesn't help. Maybe when I have to reread it this summer for comps prep I'll change my mind.