Playing Indian (Yale Historical Publications Series) [Hardcover]

Professor Philip J. Deloria (Author)

Book Description

Series: Yale Historical Publications Series | Publication Date: April 20, 1998

This text explores how white Americans have used their ideas about American Indians to shape national identity in different eras, and how Indian people have reacted to these imitations of their native dress, language and ritual.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Americans need Indians in order to define themselves as Americans, asserts Deloria (history, Univ. of Colorado). Beginning before the Boston Tea Party, and continuing into the present, Americans have adopted Indian attire, images, and traditions for both political and individual needs. These acts separated us from our European forebears while creating a unique American identity with which we are only partially comfortable, declares the author. As the country evolves, the ways in which Americans identify with Indians also change. Deloria, who is the son of Vine Deloria (Red Earth, White Lies, LJ 9/15/95), follows a strong family tradition of critically examining Indian-white relations. He demonstrates how "Indian play" has always taken on new shape and focus to engage the most pressing issues of a particular historical moment, and he notes that American views of Indians tell us much more about Americans than they do about Indians. While readers may wish the author had dealt more with Indian reactions to these phenomena, this important book belongs in all American history collections.?Mary B. Davis, Huntington Free Lib., Bronx, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A provocative study of the role of American Indians in forming the character of the US. Following D.H. Lawrences observation that the American character is essentially paradoxical (wanting to savor both civilized order and savage freedom), Deloria (History/Univ. of Colorado) traces the tendency, apparent since the arrival of the first colonists, of Anglo-Americans to appropriate Native American dress, customs, and habits. It was no accident, Deloria writes, that the perpetrators of the Boston Tea Party donned Indian headdresses before sending British cargo into the drink; they at once wanted to disguise themselves and proclaim a kind of solidarity with the continents first inhabitants. It allowed the restrained New Englanders to enjoy freedoms, and even a certain licentiousness, that wouldnt have been possible in plain clothes. Indian societies were deconstructed and imagined in American literature, in secret societies like the Tammany and Cayuga Wolf all-white tribes, and in more open organizations like the Boy Scouts, whose American founder, Ernest Thompson Seton, suspected real Indians of harboring unpatriotic sentiments. Deloria turns up fascinating oddments, including the story of one Colorado Boy Scout troop that went native to the point that the national organization tried to reeducate them, but the scouts managed to reconstruct the secret Shalako ceremony of the Zuni Indians so convincingly that Zuni elders built a special kiva for the masks the young men had made. Deloria notes that although the Boy Scouts of La Junta were not Indians, they were also more than simple, straightforward white boys. He is less admiring of the hippies, Deadheads, and modern New Agers who continue to appropriate elements of Native American religion and culture today. But in the end, he concludes, Indianness was the bedrock for creative American identities, but it was also one of the foundations . . . for imagining and performing domination and power in America. A valuable contribution to Native American studies, and worthy of attention by readers in many fields. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 262 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; First Edition edition (April 20, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300071116
• ISBN-13: 978-0300071115
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #700,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insight into an enduring problem, December 5, 2005

By 

D. Martinez (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Playing Indian (Yale Historical Publications Series) (Paperback)

One thing that has always perplexed Indian people is the way in which our white brothers could overrun our lands with their guns and bibles, on the one hand, yet still maintain a romantic fascination with Indian ways, as evidenced in their books and movies. Deloria's work offers insight into the process through which non-Indians have appropriated the Indian nations' rights and territories into an anglicized assertion that they are now the "native" people of this land by right of conquest. Consequently, "playing Indian" has nothing to do with respecting actual Indian people, but rather with assuming the guise of authenticity. In other words, playing Indian is at best an attempt by non-Indians to forge a new American identity; at worst, it is a political ruse meant to justify the brutal colonization of other peoples' homelands. In both cases, Deloria demonstrates that both type of Indian playing has little interest in consulting with any Indian people, hence the absence of Indian voices in the historical discourse. In the end, if Deloria has made some, clearly non-Indian, readers uncomfortable (or bored, as one person sadly admitted), it is probably because he wanted such readers to critically examine their own motivations for taking an interest in Indians. Are they interested in promoting justice and sovereingty for Indian nations today? Or do they merely think Indian stuff is cool and just a harmless diversion?

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting look at development of a new American identity, April 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Playing Indian (Yale Historical Publications Series) (Hardcover)

I found it interesting to read about the early colonial desire to feel new and non-European, and craft a noble, aboriginal identity (ie -Indian) for new Americans, in American literature, costume, and civic and fraternal organizations. The author's brief paragraphs on the early 20th Century rift in the Boy Scouts of America (between a nature/ indian-centric philosophy and a para-military/Christian one) could help readers understand the current debates in the Scouting movement.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant book, August 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Playing Indian (Yale Historical Publications Series) (Hardcover)

Playing Indian provides a serious argument in the debate over what American identity is. Deloria proves that although white America has traditionally considered itself as an original and true nation, white Americans have proved less secure about their national identity. In this book Deloria identifies numerous attempts by white Americans to recreate themselves as authentic Americans by assuming Native American identities. A must for anyone interested in American history.