Indigenous Intellectuals: Sovereignty, Citizenship, and the American Imagination, 1880–1930 (Studies in North American Indian History)
Cambridge University Press, 7/15/2015
EAN 9781107070813, ISBN10: 1107070813
Hardcover, 378 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm
Language: English
In the United States of America today, debates among, between, and within Indian nations continue to focus on how to determine and define the boundaries of Indian ethnic identity and tribal citizenship. From the 1880s and into the 1930s, many Native people participated in similar debates as they confronted white cultural expectations regarding what it meant to be an Indian in modern American society. Using close readings of texts, images, and public performances, this book examines the literary output of four influential American Indian intellectuals who challenged long-held conceptions of Indian identity at the turn of the twentieth century. Kiara M. Vigil traces how the narrative discourses created by these figures spurred wider discussions about citizenship, race, and modernity in the United States. Vigil demonstrates how these figures deployed aspects of Native American cultural practice to authenticate their status both as indigenous peoples and as citizens of the United States.
Introduction
a red man's rebuke
1. A global mission
the higher education of Charles Eastman
2. Tracing Carlos Montezuma's politics
progressive reform and epistolary culture networks
3. Red Bird
Gertrude Bonnin's representational politics
4. Staging US Indian history with Reel Indians
Luther Standing Bear, performativity, and cultural politics
Conclusion
the 1930s, Indian reorganization, and beyond
Afterword.