Going Native Indians in the American Cultural Imagination / Shari M. Huhndorf.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Huhndorf, Shari M. (Shari Michelle), 1965-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indians in literature.

Nationalism--United States.

Nationalism.

Public opinion--United States.

Public opinion.

Indians of North America--Public opinion.

Indians of North America.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (237 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2021

Place of Publication:

Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Since the 1800's, many European Americans have relied on Native Americans as models for their own national, racial, and gender identities. Displays of this impulse include world's fairs, fraternal organizations, and films such as Dances with Wolves. Shari M. Huhndorf uses cultural artifacts such as these to examine the phenomenon of "going native," showing its complex relations to social crises in the broader American society-including those posed by the rise of industrial capitalism, the completion of the military conquest of Native America, and feminist and civil rights activism.Huhndorf looks at several modern cultural manifestations of the desire of European Americans to emulate Native Americans. Some are quite pervasive, as is clear from the continuing, if controversial, existence of fraternal organizations for young and old which rely upon "Indian" costumes and rituals. Another fascinating example is the process by which Arctic travelers "went Eskimo," as Huhndorf describes in her readings of Robert Flaherty's travel narrative, My Eskimo Friends, and his documentary film, Nanook of the North. Huhndorf asserts that European Americans' appropriation of Native identities is not a thing of the past, and she takes a skeptical look at the "tribes" beloved of New Age devotees.Going Native shows how even seemingly harmless images of Native Americans can articulate and reinforce a range of power relations including slavery, patriarchy, and the continued oppression of Native Americans. Huhndorf reconsiders the cultural importance and political implications of the history of the impersonation of Indian identity in light of continuing debates over race, gender, and colonialism in American culture.

Contents:

Introduction: "If only I were an Indian"

Imagining America : race, nation, and imperialism at the turn of the century

Nanook and his contemporaries : traveling with the Eskimos, 1897-1941

The making of an Indian : "Forrest" Carter's literary inventions

Rites of conquest : Indian captivities in the new age

Conclusion: Rituals of citizenship.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-213) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780801454424

0801454425

9780801486951

0801486955

9780801454431

0801454433

OCLC:

905902781