Inscribing Sovereignties

“[Inscribing Sovereignties] reveals just how far critical analysis has come from the days when scholars rather uncritically accepted the point of view on language use and inscription first recorded by colonizers who insisted on ‘reducing’ (5) Indigenous languages to alphabetic script. It also shows how far we have come from suspecting that Native evidence created with settler colonial tools is always apologist or just plain incoherent.”—William & Mary Quarterly

“Whether discussing Haudenosaunee translation of wampum protocols, the Dakhota Iape Oaye, or the Paw-pa-pe-po of central Algonquian use, Round delves into the linguistic particularities of each language, drawing from original archival documentation, and offering fresh insights into historical characters and narratives.”—New England Quarterly

“Inscribing Sovereignties effectively demonstrates that sovereignty must be understood as both political and cultural, rooted in the very act of writing. . . . Round emphasizes the persistent presence of Indigenous sovereignty as a continuous cultural and political practice.”—North Carolina Historical Review

“Inscribing Sovereignties is a worthy effort to present a more complete history of the information technologies characterized as ‘writing’ among Indigenous peoples in North America during the 19th century. . . . This is an important book.”—CHOICE

“The scope of Round’s book is impressive, and the prose is engaging, with moments of real poetry and inspiration. But its biggest payoff is to advance the comparative study of Indigenous languages and orthographies across the Western Hemisphere and around the world. Round’s narrative of the history of Indigenous media can help lead researchers and Indigenous communities themselves not just to obscured histories but to inspirations for transformative practices.”—Matt Cohen, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

“Round reveals how Native North Americans put material literacy practices to decolonizing ends, sustaining culture, building community, asserting tribal authority, and expressing individual experience. This book puts to rest any lingering narratives of a divide between oral and written culture as it traces a number of ways in which Indigenous peoples brought spoken languages and linguistic practices into writing and back out again, sustaining living, vibrant vernacular languages.”—Laura Mielke, University of Kansas