Living with Strangers attempts to cast the history of the Sioux in a different light by introducing a borderlands paradigm to the historiography. This new angle not only sheds light on where the Sioux existed but also about the way in which they lived. McCrady skillfully shows how the Sioux were not passive victims of assimilation but were active participants in shaping their own destiny and the borderlands were integral to this agency. . . . McCrady's work is a welcomed addition to the histiography and examines an important, but neglected, part of the West's history.”—Craig Greenham, Journal of the West
“McCrady’s mastery of Canadian and U.S. sources is impressive. . . . Living with Strangers will be a necessary source to consult when examining other works on the trans-border region because of its importance as a new baseline study, and especially because it has references to other aboriginal groups: Metis, Assiniboine, Blackfoot divisions, Gros Ventre, Plains Ojibwa, Crows, among others.”—David R. Miller, editor of The First Ones: Readings in Indian/Native Studies
“David McCrady performs a very valuable service by providing both a chronology and the concept of borderlands to understand the Sioux and their relations to other Native groups and the different state powers. It is an important subject and one that gives us a different picture of the Native diplomacy, treaty-making war, and reservation-making that constituted what Richard Maxwell Brown has called the 'western wars of incorporation.' Bridging two national historiographies, Living with Strangers makes a real contribution to our understanding of Sioux history.”—Gerhard Ens, author of Homeland to Hinterland: The Changing Worlds of the Red River Metis in the Nineteenth Century
“This is much to compliment in Living with Strangers. It shifts the historical border focus from Canada–United States national studies by uncovering northern Sioux border history and explaining tribal relationship with the international boundary.”—Richmond L. Clow, Journal of American History
“Highly recommended.”—A. B. Kehoe, Choice
“The text is richly narrated with competing definitions of borderlands, discussions of emerging ‘middle grounds,’ portrayals of transboundary peoples, and examples of cultural mediation, especially those involving the Métis. Most important, Living with Strangers is a superb example of reporting history of the northern borderlands. Unlike the Spanish borderlands, which receive frequent attention from scholars, encounters on the Canadian-U.S. borders are still largely unexplored . . . McCrady should be commended for blurring boundaries and producing a unified history of the Sioux in the nineteenth century . . . . A long–overdue and superb treatment of this topic.”—James T. Carroll, Great Plains Quarterly
“This [book] will work well for courses on the Northern Plains, the North American West, and Native American/First Nations history. Especially useful for class settings will be the introductory and concluding chapters that spell out reasons to study comparative and transnational history. . . . [Living with Strangers] presents a deep sense of place and adds significantly to historians’ growing understanding of the borderlands of the American and Canadian Wests.”—Sterling Evans, American Historical Review
“An ambitious and valuable study that begins to map out important dimensions of the complex history of the Sioux of the borderlands.”—Sarah Carter, Montana: The Magazine of Western History
