A Nation Within a Nation: Voices of the Oneidas in Wisconsin

The Oneidas of Wisconsin tell their own story in this richly diverse, authoritative contemporary history. A Nation within a Nation gathers first-person accounts, biographical essays, and scholars' investigations in a sweeping and provocative consideration of the period of 1900-1969. In the wake of removal from their native New York, the Oneida people settled near what is now Green Bay, on 65,000 acres of commonly held land. But in 1887, the Dawes Act paved the way for a devastating break-up of the reservation, and within a lifetime the Oneidas saw their land holdings plummet to less than 200 acres. Throughout struggles with poverty, oppression, and government interference and assimilationism, Wisconsin Oneidas remained connected as a community and true to their Iroquois roots. They also refused to relinquish their dream of reclaiming their land, and in recent years have not only stopped the land-loss, but have begun to reverse it.

L. Gordon McLester III is an Oneida tribal historian. He is coeditor of The Oneida Indian Journey and The Oneida Indians in the Age of Allotment and coauthor of Chief Daniel Bread and the Oneida Nation of Indians, all with Laurence M. Hauptman. McLester lives in Oneida, Wisconsin.

Laurence M. Hauptman is SUNY Distinguished Professor of History at SUNY New Paltz, where he has taught Native American history since 1971. Hauptman is the author, coauthor, or coeditor of fifteen books on the Iroquois and other Native Americans. He has testified as an expert witness before committees of both houses of Congress and in the federal courts and has served as a historical consultant for the Wisconsin Oneidas, the Cayugas, the Mashantucket Pequots, and the Senecas. The Oneida Indian Journey, which Professor Hauptman coedited with L. Gordon Mclester III, won the Wisconsin Historical Society prize for best community history in the year 2000.