The Journal of San Diego History
SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY
Spring 1986, Volume 32, Number 2
Thomas L. Scharf, Editor
Book Notes
American Indian Identity: Today’s Changing Perspectives.
Edited by Clifford Trafzer. San Diego State University Publications in American Indian Studies, no. 1. San Diego: San Diego State University Department of American Indian Studies, 1985. Illustration. 84 Pages. $7.00 Paper.
As part of its push to become one of the major Indian studies programs in the nation, San Diego State University’s Department of American Indian Studies has launched a monograph series. The first volume is American Indian Identity which consists of seven articles – five by present or former San Diego State faculty members, one by a student and one by another Indian scholar. The articles address matters important to contemporary Indians and their struggle for identity – country western music, the pickup truck, artifacts of their past, movement into the middle class and the role of Indian studies programs. The book is excellent for Native Americans seeking to clarify their sense of identity or for the non-Indian wishing to better understand what it means to be a Native American today. The book is especially recommended for teachers, both for background and understanding, or to use in a classroom.
