Dr. Jennifer Graber's new book, "The Gods of Indian Country," grew out of lingering questions from her first book, a study of American Quakers and prisons. Graber learned that Quakers served as missionaries to Native American reservations in the West. She combined this interest in Quaker missions with her research into Native American captivity, so that the resulting narrative contrasts the motives of U.S. officials with Kiowa captives on an Oklahoma reservation. The main claim of Graber's book is that there were two "gods" of Indian Country — the religious beliefs of the Kiowas (onto which Western explorers superimposed monotheistic terms like "Great Spirit") versus the Christianity of Protestant and Catholic missionaries.
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