Urban Villages and Local Identities examines immigration to the Great Plains by surveying the experiences of three divergent ethnic groups Volga Germans, Omaha Indians, and Vietnamese that settled in enclaves in Lincoln, Nebraska, beginning in 1876, 1941, and 1975, respectively. These urban villages served as safe havens that protected new arrivals from a mainstream that often eschewed unfamiliar cultural practices. Lincoln's large Volga German population was last fully discussed in 1918; Omahas are rarely studied as urban people although sixy-five percent of their population lives in cities; and the growing body of work on Vietnamese tends to be conducted by social scientists rather than historians, few of whom contrast Southeast Asian experiences with those of earlier waves of immigration. As a comparative study, Urban Villages and Local Identities is inspired, in part, by Reinventing Free Labor, by Gunther Peck. By focusing on the experiences of three populations over the course of 130 years, Urban Villages connects two distinct eras of international border crossing and broadens the field of immigration to include Native Americans. Ultimately, the work yields insights into the complexity, flexibility, and durability of cultural identitiesamong ethnic groups and the urban mainstream in one capital city.

Urban Villages and Local Identities examines immigration to the Great Plains by surveying the experiences of three divergent ethnic groups-Volga Germans, Omaha Indians, and Vietnamese-that settled in enclaves in Lincoln, Nebraska, beginning in 1876, 1941, and 1975, respectively. These urban villages served as safe havens that protected new arrivals from a mainstream that often eschewed unfamiliar cultural practices. Lincoln's large Volga German population was last fully discussed in 1918; Omahas are rarely studied as urban people although sixy-five percent of their population lives in cities; and the growing body of work on Vietnamese tends to be conducted by social scientists rather than historians, few of whom contrast Southeast Asian experiences with those of earlier waves of immigration. As a comparative study, Urban Villages and Local Identities is inspired, in part, by Reinventing Free Labor, by Gunther Peck. By focusing on the experiences of three populations over the course of 130 years, Urban Villages connects two distinct eras of international border crossing and broadens the field of immigration to include Native Americans. Ultimately, the work yields insights into the complexity, flexibility, and durability of cultural identities among ethnic groups and the urban mainstream in one capital city.

Implementing many of the most cutting-edge trends in contemporary indigenous studies, these seventeen original essays tackle indigenous identity, cultural perseverance, economic development, and urbanization in a wide array of American Indian and First Nations populations. The authors present and preserve indigenous voices and carefully consider native worldviews throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, and also address mainstream policies that influenced Native peoples in various eras and locales. The essays range from the specific--single peoples living in well-defined spaces during discrete time periods, to the expansive--broad comparative and international discussions. Yet the volume's diversity extends beyond its topical breadth. The contributors themselves--many of whom are Native Americans or members of other First Nations--peer through scholarly lenses polished in Canada, Denmark, Finland, England, Sweden, and the United States. The ensuing synthesis helps to clarify the modern complexities of analyzing indigenous pasts."In this innovative work, scholars from around the world, working in an array of disciplines, re-examine issues vital to Indigenous North America. John Wunder and Kurt Kinbacher have done an admirable job of assembling a collection of writers who span the arc from established and well respected academics like Peter Iverson and Susan Miller to new and exciting thinkers like Miia Halme and Sami Lakomaki. Reconfigurations of Native North America is blazing a new path and expanding the ways in which we consider Indigenous issues in the 20th century."--Akim D. Reinhardt, Towson University