Indian nation : Native American literature and nineteenth-century nationalisms / Cheryl Walker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Walker, Cheryl, 1947-

Series:

New Americanists

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--Indian authors--History and criticism.

American literature.

American literature--Indian authors.

Literature and anthropology--United States--History--19th century.

Literature and anthropology.

Literature and society--United States--History--19th century.

Literature and society.

Indians of North America.

Civilization.

Historiography.

History.

United States.

American literature--19th century--History and criticism.

Indians of North America--Civilization--Historiography.

National characteristics, American, in literature.

Nationalism--United States--History--19th century.

Nationalism.

United States--Civilization--Indian influences.

Ethnic relations in literature.

Nationalism in literature.

Indians in literature.

Physical Description:

xvii, 256 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Durham, NC : Duke University Press, 1997.

Summary:

Indian Nation documents the contributions of Native Americans to the notion of American nationhood and to concepts of American identity at a crucial, defining time in U.S. history. Departing from previous scholarship, Cheryl Walker turns the "usual" questions upside-down, asking not how whites experienced indigenous peoples, but how Native Americans envisioned the United States as a nation. This project unfolds a narrative of participatory resistance in which Indians themselves sought to transform the discourse of nationhood.

Walker examines the rhetoric and writings of nineteenth-century Native Americans, including William Apess, Black Hawk, George Copway, John Rollin Ridge, and Sarah Winnemucca. Demonstrating with unique detail how these authors worked to transform venerable myths and icons of American identity, Indian Nation chronicles Native American participation in the forming of an American nationalism in both published texts and in speeches that were delivered throughout the United States. Pottawattomie Chief Simon Pokagon's "The Red Man's Rebuke", an important document of Indian oratory, is published here in its entirety for the first time since 1893.

By looking at this writing through the lens of the best theoretical work on nationality, postcoloniality, and the subaltern, Walker creates a new and encompassing picture of the relationship between Native Americans and whites. She shows that, contrary to previous studies, America in the nineteenth century was intercultural in significant ways. A groundbreaking contribution to American studies, Indian Nation will be welcomed by Native American and American literature scholars as well as by specialists across a range ofdisciplines interested in questions of nationalism and postcolonialism.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0822319500

0822319446

OCLC:

35593556