We Were All Like Migrant Workers Here

“Bauer captures the fluidity of Native peoples navigating cultural change through their mobility and participation as wage laborers in an expanding market economy. Rather than a story of victimization, Bauer offers a satisfyingly complicated view of how California Indians reimagined themselves and survived. Grounded in extensive archival and oral history research, this is certain to become a classic work in American Indian and labor history.” — David Rich Lewis, Utah State University

“Bauer’s analysis helps us understand more profoundly the totality of life on a northern California Indian reservation. The book is nicely conceived, engaging, and nuanced and original in its arguments. It will be enthusiastically read and widely cited.” — David Vaught, Texas A & M University

“Bauer sets out to rewrite this old narrative of defeat, population collapse, and cultural loss….[by] emphasiz[ing] the survival and adaptation of a number of California tribal groups.” — Western Historical Quarterly

“Bauer’s study stands apart from other works on California Indian history after 1850 because of its fruitful combination of archival research and oral history….As none has before, Bauer captures the different ways that Round Valley Indians worked to survive, as well as the ways in which their work made community….A highly significant contribution to the study of California Indians and labor in the American West.” — The American Historical Review

“A thought-provoking account of how the California Round Valley Indians responded to numerous changes that affected their environment and social organization.” — Oral History Review