The Boston Tea Party, the Order of Red Men, Camp Fire Girls, Boy Scouts, Grateful Dead concerts are just a few examples of the American tendency to appropriate Indian dress and act out Indian roles. This provocative book explores how white Americans have used their ideas about Indians to shape national identity, in different eras -- and how Indian people have reacted to these imitations of their native dress, language, and ritual.At the Boston Tea Party, colonial rebels played Indian in order to claim an aboriginal American ...
Read More
The Boston Tea Party, the Order of Red Men, Camp Fire Girls, Boy Scouts, Grateful Dead concerts are just a few examples of the American tendency to appropriate Indian dress and act out Indian roles. This provocative book explores how white Americans have used their ideas about Indians to shape national identity, in different eras -- and how Indian people have reacted to these imitations of their native dress, language, and ritual.At the Boston Tea Party, colonial rebels played Indian in order to claim an aboriginal American identity. In the nineteenth century, Indian fraternal orders allowed men to rethink the idea of revolution, consolidate national power, and write nationalist literary epics. By the twentieth century, playing Indian helped nervous city dwellers deal with modernist concerns about nature, authenticity, Cold War anxiety, and various forms of relativism. Deloria points out, however, that throughout American history the creative uses of Indianness have been interwoven with conquest and dispossession of the Indians. Indian play has thus been fraught with ambivalence -- for white Americans who idealized and villainized the Indian, and for Indians who were both humiliated and empowered by these cultural exercises. Deloria suggests that imagining Indians has helped generations of white Americans define, mask, and evade paradoxes stemming from simultaneous construction and destruction of these native peoples. In the process, Americans have created powerful identifies that have never been fully secure. "Playing Indian will help the reader understand why, from the revellers at Merrymount to the Berkeley tribes of the 1960s, every oppositional current in America has foundits way to the people called 'Indians, ' and why, though (as D. H. Lawrence said.) the Red Indians will never again possess the broad lands of America, their spirit will". -- Noel Ignatiev, author of How the Irish Became White and coeditor of Race Traitor
Read Less
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
HARDCOVER Good-Bumped and creased book with tears to the extremities, but not affecting the text block, may have remainder mark or previous owner's name-GOOD Standard-sized.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very Good + in Very Good + jacket. Size: 6x1x9; Clean, solid hardcover copy with unmarked text. Jacket has mild surface and edge wear. Binding is tight and square. Books, box sets, and items other than standard jewel case CDs and DVDs that sell for $9 or more ship in a box; under $9 in a bubble mailer. Expedited and international orders may ship in a flat rate envelope rather than a box due to cost constraints. All US-addressed items ship with complimentary delivery confirmation.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
New. Size: 6x1x9; First Edition, First Printing. In stock and ready to ship. Gift-quality. Ships with tracking the same or next business day from New Haven, CT. We fully guarantee to ship the exact same item as listed and work hard to maintain our excellent customer service.