Books pertaining to Indian-centric society:
Playing
Indian by Philip Joseph Deloria:
Review: "Interesting look at development
of a new American identity, April 17, 1998 Reviewer: A reader from LM, NYC,
NY I found it interesting to read about the early colonial desire to feel
new and non-European, and craft a noble, aboriginal identity (ie -Indian)
for new Americans, in American literature, costume, and civic and fraternal
organizations. The author's brief paragraphs on the early 20th Century rift
in the Boy Scouts of America (between a nature/ indian-centric philosophy
and a para-military/Christian one) could help readers understand the current
debates in the Scouting movement."
Books
on Images & Stereotypes of Native Americans
The following are some of the many books in the University Library at USC
which relate to the stereotyping of Native Americans. For additional titles,
see the subject headings hints at the bottom of this page. Go to media stereotyping
for sources on how the mass media portrays minorities.
The
Insistence of the Indian
by Susan Scheckel
Book Description: Americans' first attempts to
forge a national identity coincided with the apparent need to define--and
limit--the status and rights of Native Americans. During these early decades
of the nineteenth century, the image of the "Indian" circulated throughout
popular culture--in the novels of James Fenimore Cooper, plays about Pocahontas,
Indian captivity narratives, Black Hawk's autobiography, and visitors' guides
to the national capitol. In exploring such sources as well as the political
and legal rhetoric of the time, Susan Scheckel argues that the "Indian question"
was intertwined with the ways in which Americans viewed their nation's past
and envisioned its destiny. She shows how the Indians provided a crucial site
of reflection upon national identity. And yet the Indians, by being denied
the natural rights upon which the constitutional principles of the United
States rested, also challenged American convictions of moral ascendancy and
national legitimacy.
Scheckel investigates, for example, the Supreme Court's decision on Indian land rights and James Fenimore Cooper's popular frontier romance The Pioneers: both attempted to legitimate American claims to land once owned by Indians and to assuage guilt associated with the violence of conquest by incorporating the Indians in a version of the American political "family." Alternatively, the widely performed Pocahontas plays dealt with the necessity of excluding Indians politically, but also portrayed these original inhabitants as embodying the potential of the continent itself. Such examples illustrate a gap between principles and practice. It is from this gap, according to the author, that the nation emerged, not as a coherent idea or a realist narrative, but as an ongoing performance that continues to play out, without resolution, fundamental ambivalences of American national identity.
American
Indians : Stereotypes & Realities
by Devon A. Mihesuah
Review: "truly brilliant and courageous,
May 19, 1999 Reviewer: A reader from CA It is amazing that clueless white
males continue to perpetrate their eurocentric structuring of Native American
identity. Fortunately, we have wonderful books like this that challenge the
assumptions of the domineering society controlled by white patriarchal attitudes.
This is an important book."
As
We Are Now : Mixblood Essays on Race and Identity
by William S. Penn
Book Description: The thirteen contributors to
As We Are Now invite readers to explore with them the untamed territory of
race and mixblood identity in North America. A "mixblood," according to editor
W.S. Penn, recognizes that his or her identity comes not from distinct and
separable strains of ancestry but from the sum of the tension and interplay
of all his or her ancestral relationships. These first-person narratives cross
racial, national, and disciplinary boundaries in a refreshingly experimental
approach to writing culture. Their authors call on similar but varied cultural
and aesthetic traditions mostly oralin order to address some aspect of race
and identity about which they feel passionate, and all resist the essentialist
point of view. Mixblood Native American, Mestizo/a, and African-American writers
focus their discussion on the questions indigenous and minority people ask
and the way in which they ask them, clearly merging the singular "I" with
the communal "we." These are new voices in the dialogue of ethnic writers,
and they offer a highly original treatment of an important subject.
Hollywood's
Indian : The Portrayal of the Native American in Film
by Peter C. Rollins
Review: New approaches to the Native American
as represented in film This is a dispassionate look at how the Native American
has been depicted in film, with specific case studies from the silent eraall
the way up to the present. Here are the films examined: The Vanishing American
(1926); Stagecoach (1939); Broken Arrow (1950); The Searchers (1956); Tell
Them Willie Boy is Here (1956); Little Big Man (1970); A Man Called Horse
(1970); Powwow Highway (1989); Dances With Wolves (1990); The Last of the
Mohicans (1920, 1936, 1992); The Indian in the Cupboard (1995); Pocahontas
(1995). There is a general introduction by Peter Rollins, Editor of _Film
& History_ and by John E. O'Connor, founder of _Film & History_. (More on
their work and the work of others in this field can be found on the web site
for the journal: http://h-net2.msu.edu/~filmhis/ The essays attempt to examine
how films reflect the attitudes toward the West, the conflict between the
races, and the institutional pressures of Hollywood. Even the use of the convention
in Finland is examined as are the "Spaghetti Westerns." An index unites the
collection by topic, personal name, battles, and film titles.
The
White Man's Indian : Images of the American Indian, from Columbus to the Present
by Robert F. Berkhofer
Review: the white man's indian: images of
the american indian..., June 9, 2000 Reviewer: kari goglin (see more about
me) from usa berkhofer does a good job explaining the history of the image
that caucasian's have of the native american. the only drawback is that it
was written 23 years ago and the reader must keep reminding themselves of
this fact when faced with outdated material concerning public opinion and/or
lack of scholarly developments and discoveries of native society.
Voice your opinion on our Discussion Forum.
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