Out-group gestures can lower self-esteem

Culture-specific symbols can prime aspects of identity, like self-esteem, in bilingual-bicultural individuals. The purpose of the present studies was to test whether gestures that are specific to a culture prime self-esteem and, if so, whether it is due to in-group/out-group association. In Study 1, Chinese Canadians had higher self-esteem scores when primed by Chinese number gestures or characters than by English number gestures or words. In Study 2, we taught Chinese number gestures to non-Chinese adults, with half thinking they were Chinese gestures (out-group) and half that they were old fur traders’ gestures (in-group). The self-esteem scores were higher in the in-group condition than the out-group condition. Comparisons with self-esteem scores from previous studies suggest that the out-group conditions were significantly lower than baseline. These results suggest that out-group gesture primes can lower self-esteem.

Canoes in context: An Ojibwa maritime cultural landscape

A birch-bark canoe often conjures up images of French and British fur traders but its most important context comes from an association with the Native communities that invented the craft. This article describes Ojibwa birch-bark canoes’ place in a culture that was influenced by the lakes, ponds, rivers and streams that made up their environment throughout the Great Lakes region and Canada. Just as importantly, Ojibwa canoes offer an excellent device for exploring the multitude of ways that water influenced identity, cosmology and day-to-day life.

Introduction

The introduction begins with the story of Bull Back Fat, a Blackfoot chief who visited both American and British fur traders in 1832 to remind them of their obligations to Blackfoot people. Bull Back Fat was one in a long line of savvy Blackfoot diplomats who, between 1720 and 1877, used the unique borderlands geography of Blackfoot homelands to preserve their influence, sovereignty, and way of life. By telling the story of the three Blackfoot nations (Siksika, Kainai, and Piikani) and their engagement with colonial change, this book contributes to growing scholarly conversations on Indigenous agency, borderlands history, and early North American history.

Beyond the Laclède-Chouteau Legend

This book explores the importance of Louis St. Ange de Bellerive and Charles-Joseph Labuxière within the larger context of Illinois Country history and society. More specifically, it examines how St. Ange and Labuxière rose to prominence in a French colony that had existed for more than a half century before St. Louis came into being. It argues that these two men were more important than either fur traders Auguste Chouteau or his stepfather Pierre Laclède Liguest—Chouteau claimed that Laclède had foreseen St. Louis's immense prospects from the very beginning—during St. Louis's earliest years. This book also brings to life scores of other persons who played important roles in early St. Louis even though many of them have never before appeared in any history book—from woodcutters and carpenters to cabinetmakers, stonemasons, women and children, and African and Indian slaves.

4. Taking the farther West

By the time the last Indian removals from the First West were being carried out in the early nineteenth century, the demands of Americans for lands farther west, within and beyond the borders of the Louisiana Purchase, were creating conflicts with existing occupants and rival claimants. Over time, these claims displaced prior arrangements between fur traders and Indians. They also led to war between the United States and Mexico. ‘Taking the farther West’ describes this United States expansion, the war with Mexico, and the subsequent discovery of gold in California, which precipitated an unprecedented number of people heading to the western end of the continent. The Gold Rush had devastating consequences for the native Californian Indians.