Customer Reviews

White Robe's Dilemma: Tribal History in American Literature (Native Americans of the Northeast: Culture, History, and the Contemporary)

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Rich in its accounting for the often surprising details, the necessary 'facts' (among them much newly discovered material), sovereign in its generalizing interpretations, elegant in its presentation, and revisionist in its central thesis, this volume is a 'must' for anyone interested in tribal history.

This book is not only very informative in conveying the issues that Native Americans dealt with as a people, but, inadvertently, becomes extremely important for formulating questions/problems/theories one might ask when teaching Native American literature in a high school or college-level setting. White Robe's Dilemma can be considered one of the first in the way of ground-breaking work done in this particular area of American Literature. In that sense, then, it is true that the author, Neil Schmitz, "distinguishes himself" by way of being one of the first to actively contribute to the critical theory that tackles the problems of teaching Native American literature and culture in a literature class. Yet Schmitz, as an author, does not have to distinguish himself in the literary field. His work is renowned in the English critical literary field via his scholarly journal articles as well as for his authoritative, critical analysis of one of literature's most complex characters, Huck Finn, in his book, Huck and Alice: Humorous Writing in American Literature, not to mention the fact that he is a well-respected book reviewer for the Buffalo newspapers, an excellent lecturer, and has received awards for teaching excellence.

I agree with the man whose review stated that this "volume is a 'must' for anyone interested in tribal history." My opinion/recommendation about this book is that anyone interested in teaching Native American Literature should have this text as a guideline.

This book in not only very informative in conveying the issues that Native Americans dealt with as a people, but, also (inadvertently), becomes extremely important for formulating questions/problems/theories one might ask when teaching Native American Literature in a high school or college-level setting. White Robe's Dilemma can be considered one of the first in the way of ground-breaking work done in this particular area of American Literature. In that sense, then, it is true that the author, Neil Schmitz, "distinguishes himself" by way of being one of the first to actively contribute to the critical theory that tackles the problems of teaching about Native American literature and culture in a Literature class. Yet Schmitz, as an author, does not have to distinquish himself in the literary field; his work is renowned in the English critical literary field via his scholarly journal articles as well as for his authoritative, critical analysis of one of literature's most complex characters, Huck Finn, in his book, Huck and Alice: Humorous Writing in American Literature, not to mention the facts the he is a well-respected book reviewer for the Buffalo newspapers, an excellent lecturer, and has received awards for teaching excellence.

I agree with the man whose review stated this "volume is a 'must' for anyone interested in tribal history." My opinion about this book is that anyone interested in teaching Native American Literature should have this text as a guideline.

I guess if you're an insecure white guy who wants to distinguish himself from other white guys, then you write about Native Americans! What a niche. But the nothingness shows through.