Native acts : Indian performance, 1603-1832 / edited by Joshua David Bellin and Laura L. Mielke ; afterword by Philip J. Deloria.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bellin, Joshua David.

Mielke, Laura L.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indians of North America--Public opinion.

Indians of North America.

Indians in popular culture.

Indians of North America--History.

History.

Indians in literature.

American literature--Indian authros.

American literature.

American literature--White authors.

Public opinion--North America.

Public opinion.

North America.

Physical Description:

333 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2011]

Summary:

Long before the Boston Tea Party, where colonists staged a revolutionary act by masquerading as Indians, people looked to Native Americans for the symbols, imagery, and acts that showed what it meant to be "American." And for just as long, observers have largely overlooked the role that Native peoples themselves played in creating and enacting the Indian performances appropriated by European Americans. It is precisely this neglected notion of Native Americans "playing Indian" that Native Acts explores. These essays-by historians, literary critics, anthropologists, and folklor-ists-provide the first broadly based chronicle of the performance of "Indianness" by Natives in North America from the seventeenth through the early nineteenth century.

The authors' careful and imaginative analysis of historical documents and performative traditions reveals an intricate history of intercultural exchange. In sum, Native Acts challenges any simple understanding of cultural "authenticity" even as it celebrates the dynamic role of performance in the American Indian pursuit of self-determination. In this collection, Indian peoples emerge as active, vocal, embodied participants in cultural encounters whose performance powerfully shaped the course of early American history. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Lying Inventions: Native Dissimulation in Early Colonial New England / Matt Cohen Cohen, Matt 27

2 The Deer Island Indians and Common Law Performance / Nan Goodman Goodman, Nan 53

3 Native Performances of Diplomacy and Religion in Early New France / John H. Pollack Pollack, John H. 81

4 Wendat Song and Carnival Noise in the Jesuit Relations / Olivia Bloechl Bloechl, Olivia 117

5 "I Wunnatuckquannum, This Is My Hand": Native Performance in Massachusett Language Indian Deeds / Stephanie Fitzgerald Fitzgerald, Stephanie 145

6 In a Red Petticoat: Coosaponakeesa's Performance of Creek Sovereignty in Colonial Georgia / Caroline Wigginton Wigginton, Caroline 169

7 Playing John White: John Wompas and Racial Identity in the Seventeenth-Century Atlantic World / Jenny Hale Pulsipher Pulsipher, Jenny Hale 195

8 "This Wretched Scene of British Curiosity and Savage Debauchery": Performing Indian Kingship in Eighteenth-Century Britain / Timothy J. Shannon Shannon, Timothy J. 221

9 Performing Indian Publics: Two Native Views of Diplomacy to the Western Nations in 1792 / Phillip H. Round Round, Phillip H. 249

10 Editing as Indian Performance: Elias Boudinot, Poetry, and the Cherokee Phoenix / Theresa Strouth Gaul Gaul, Theresa Strouth 281.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780803226326

0803226322

OCLC:

712115606