In The Rediscovered Self, Ronald Niezen builds on and extends his previous work (including Origins of Indigenism and A World Beyond Difference) analyzing the history, dynamics, struggles, and paradoxes of the transnational indigenous peoples movement. As with his earlier books, Niezen draws on his ethnographic research with Tuareg pastoralists in Mali and Cree Indians in Canada, as well as his repeated attendance at various United Nations meetings on the topic of indigenous rights, to provide a clear, compelling, and thoughtful analysis of the possibilities and predicaments produced by the rapid expansion of the global indigenous peoples movement.

In contrast to the sustained arguments of earlier volumes, The Rediscovered Self is a collection of thematically related essays (most previously published). They explore the conjunctures that contributed to the rise of transnational indigenism; the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on indigenous identity and political mobilization; the limitations of judicial definitions of “culture” and “cultural rights” for aboriginal recognition in Canada; the justice-seeking strategies of two Cree communities trying to control the predations of extractive industries; the challenges of understanding, representing, and preventing teenage cluster suicides among Cree and other indigenous peoples; and the distinct approaches of scholars and indigenous activists to history. Together, these essays probe the intensified need for belonging and cultural continuity in a world of rapid change and increasing dislocation and the precarious politics of indigenous activism and appeals. As always, Niezen moves eloquently beyond the details of specific cases to distill and consider the epistemological, political, and theoretical assumptions, contexts, and consequences of the rise of indigenism as a platform for claiming cultural and social justice from states, the United Nations, and other institutions and organizations.

In the essays, Niezen elaborates on several key ideas discussed in earlier work and offers some new insights. These include an extended discussion of what he terms “the politics of indignation,” which he argues has “become the central source of energy in movements of political and legal reform” (p. 7). Indignation, according to Niezen, implies that injustices are not just experienced as issues of illegality, but as deeply felt moral offenses. But translating and communicating a community's sense of indignation and injustice into action, especially in the dizzying world of ICTs and other global media, is a daunting process, as suggested by the Cree examples. Perhaps the most compelling contribution is the last essay, in which Niezen carefully distinguishes between the assumptions, motivations, methods, and truth claims of the “therapeutic history” promoted by indigenous activists and the “critical history” deployed by most scholars. The contradictions between these two historical approaches pose difficult predicaments for both scholars and activists sympathetic to the need for the self-affirmation and political struggles for justice of indigenous peoples.

In sum, The Rediscovered Self will be of interest to scholars of indigenous peoples, social movements, politics, and broader questions of epistemology, representation, and method.