Living with Strangers: The Nineteenth-Century Sioux and the Canadian-American Borderlands

Now in paperback, Living with Strangers tells the story of the Sioux who moved into the Canadian-American borderlands in the later years of the nineteenth century. David G. McCrady’s award-winning study crosses national boundaries to examine how Native peoples on both sides of the border reacted to the arrival of the Sioux. Using material from archives across North America, including Canadian and American government documents, Lakota winter counts, and oral histories, McCrady reveals that the nineteenth-century Sioux acted with spirited self-interest across the Canadian-American border.

The Sioux’s shifting tactical use of the Canada-United States boundary helped them to create cross-border trading competitions, to open negotiations with both governments to determine which country would accord them better treatment, and to use the border as a shield in times of war with the United States. Living with Strangers takes readers beyond the traditional dichotomy of the Canadian and the American West to reveal significant and previously unknown strands in Sioux history.