Michigan State University Press is excited to announce our upcoming attendance at the 2026 American Society for Ethnohistory Conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma from October 7th to 10th, 2026. There, the MSU Press will showcase books primarily from our American Indian Studies and Makwa Enewed series. Be sure to check out our upcoming book Modernity in Motion by David J. Carlson and 2024 Michigan State History Award winner Michigan’s Company K by Michelle K. Cassidy.
American Indian Studies Series
The American Indian Studies series seeks to develop deeper understandings of American Indian/Indigenous cultures and identities and the place(s) of American Indian/Indigenous people in today’s world. The series is open to a wide variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches. It includes works by junior and senior scholars that significantly contribute to scholarship and are of interest beyond specialized audiences. We are especially interested in works centered in the Great Lakes region in the US/Canada.
Makwa Enewed is dedicated to books encompassing the varied views and perspectives of people working in and with American Indian nations/communities. Books published under the Makwa Enewed imprint rely less on formal academic critique and more on experientially grounded views and perspectives on issues, activities, and developments in Indian Country. The series gathers its strength from the voices of tribal leaders, community activists, and community-engaged scholars. Thus, each book published under the Makwa Enewed emerges from tribally based people and places, reminding readers of the varied beliefs and pressing interests of American Indian peoples and nations.
Modernity in Motion: Reading Gerald Vizenor in Global Contexts
By David J. Carlson
American Indian Studies Series
Modernity in Motion offers a groundbreaking exploration of Anishinaabe writer Gerald Vizenor’s richly layered body of work spanning fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Through the lens of transnational Indigenous studies, this compelling study reveals how Vizenor’s concept of transmotion, which he defines as the interplay between local and global identities, reconstructs modernity as a dynamic force of transformation.
Close readings illuminate Vizenor’s radical storytelling, which bridges seemingly disparate worlds: the White Earth Reservation, Nazi-occupied Paris, post-Hiroshima Japan, and beyond. By weaving these far-flung geographies into unexpected constellations, Vizenor challenges readers to rethink Indigenous history, sovereignty, and creative expression within a global framework.
Positioned at the intersection of tribal-centric and world literature paradigms, Modernity in Motion is essential reading for scholars of Indigenous studies and comparative literature.
Michigan’s Company K: Anishinaabe Soldiers, Citizenship, and the Civil War
By Michelle K. Cassidy
Winner of 2024 Michigan State History Award
As much as the Civil War was a battle over the survival of the United States, for the men of Company K of the First Michigan Sharpshooters, it was also one battle in a longer struggle for the survival of Anishinaabewaki, the homelands of the Anishinaabeg—Ojibwe, Odawa, and Boodewaadamii peoples. The men who served in what was often called ‘the Indian Company’ chose to enlist in the Union army to contribute to their peoples’ ongoing struggle with the state and federal governments over status, rights, resources, and land in the Great Lakes.
This meticulously researched history begins in 1763 with Pontiac’s War, a key moment in Anishinaabe history. It then explores the multiple strategies the Anishinaabeg deployed to remain in Michigan despite federal pressure to leave. Anishinaabe men claimed the rights and responsibilities associated with male citizenship—voting, owning land, and serving in the army—while actively preserving their status as ‘Indians’ and Anishinaabe peoples. Indigenous expectations of the federal government, as well as religious and social networks, shaped individuals’ decisions to join the U.S. military.
The stories of Company K men also broaden our understanding of the complex experiences of Civil War soldiers. In their fight against removal, dispossession, political marginalization, and loss of resources in the Great Lakes, the Anishinaabeg participated in state and national debates over citizenship, allegiance, military service, and the government’s responsibilities to veterans and their families.
| Title | Author | Price | Sale Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Place in Common | Marrero & Sturtevant | $44.95 | $31.47 |
| As Sacred to Us | Morseau | $24.95 | $17.47 |
| Contested Territories (paperback) | Beatty-Medina & Rinehart | $25.99 | $18.19 |
| Detroit’s Hidden Channels (paperback) | Marrero | $29.95 | $20.97 |
| Founding Mothers of Mackinac Island, The | Weller | $32.95 | $23.07 |
| Great Women of Mackinac | Croghan | $37.95 | $26.57 |
| Haudenosaunee Women Lacrosse Players (paperback) | Bassett | $39.95 | $27.97 |
| Indigenous Activism in the Midwest | McCue-Enser | $34.95 | $24.47 |
| Indigenous Poetics (paperback) | Hernández-Ávila & McGlennen | $39.95 | $27.97 |
| Manoomin | Barton | $29.95 | $20.97 |
| Merchant John Askin, The | Carroll | $29.95 | $20.97 |
| Michigan’s Company K | Cassidy | $44.95 | $31.47 |
| Militarization of Indian Country | LaDuke & Cruz | $16.95 | $11.87 |
| Modernity in Motion (paperback) | Carlson | $45.95 | $32.17 |
| Native Enough | O’Leary | $19.95 | $13.97 |
| New Faces of the Fur Trade | Fiske, Smith & Wicken | $49.95 | $34.97 |
| Our Precious Corn | Webster | $34.95 | $24.47 |
| Pathways to Indigenous Nation Sovereignty | Parker | $26.95 | $18.87 |
| Retracing the Dragoon Trail in Iowa (paperback) | Mason | $34.95 | $24.47 |
| Sixty Years’ War for the Great Lakes | Skaggs & Nelson | $24.95 | $17.47 |
| Stick Houses (paperback) | Fletcher | $24.95 | $17.47 |
| To Your Posts! (paperback) | Nelson | $37.95 | $26.57 |
| Tribal Administration Handbook | Webster & Bauerkemper | $39.95 | $27.97 |
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