- Paperback: 262 pages
- Publisher: Yale University Press; New edition edition (Sep 10 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0300080670
- ISBN-13: 978-0300080674
- Product Dimensions: 23.8 x 15.6 x 1.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 363 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #305,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
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. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
American and Indian Identity Explored,
By
This review is from: Playing Indian (Paperback)
Philip J. Deloria presents an interesting assessment of American identity as it relates to Indian identity. Yes, this is an important aspect of American identity in general because it shows how far American's perceptions of Native Americans have come since the establishment of American society during the eighteenth century. Deloria's Playing Indian is important scholarship in understanding Americanness from a historical perspective.However, Deloria's book, once again, lacks the voices of Native Americans. Yes, there is mention of the controversial Tammany Society and their relations with Creek Indians, but where are the Creek voices? Deloria chooses to write from one perspective that does not completely reveal the complicated issue of Playing Indian. He attempts to clearly discuss how Indian identity has shaped the national identity of Americans, but some where in the fold where he discusses the interior and exterior Indian, he lost me. It only took a matter of re-readings to somewhat understand his point. Nonetheless, the concluding chapters discuss the counterculture embracing Indianness as part of their identity. Deloria ties this aspect of American and Indian relations in order to show how Indianness brought a sense of unity as it pertained all races during the tumultous 1960s and early 1970s. This may have been the most significant part of the book that offers an inkling of how close Americans came to "coming together" communally with Indians, but Americans still did not fully grasp the reality of being Indian or fully welcoming Native American people within American society. Indeed, Indians still appear as the Other.
1.0 out of 5 stars
boring and racist,
By A Customer
This review is from: Playing Indian (Paperback)
Deloria uses the same tired stereotypes to describe relations between Indians and Whites that AIM and other Native activists have offered up for years. His sections on the use of Native spirituality by non-Natives is horribly racist and shows little understanding (or reading) of work in the field. The book plays strongly on feelings of white guilt and minority sympathy. Instead of working to build understanding and bridges bewteen cultures that have been bitterly divided by historical injustices and conflicts - in order to find a way to peaceably inhabit North America together - Deloria continues to inflame feelings of hatred and animosity. Further, the book is developed in a horribly dry and tedious manner, devoid of life or human - as opposed to sensational - feeling. For a better overview of Native/non-Native spirituality issues, read Stephen Buhner's One Spirit Many Peoples. Better perspectives on finding common ground between Indians and non-Indians can be found in the work of Chief Dan George, Ed MCGaa, Brooke Medicine Eagle, Black Elk, and Fools Crow. NOT recommended unless you are doing research or are forced to read it in a college class.
1.0 out of 5 stars
What!,
By "moccagirl22" (Bronx, N.Y. USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Playing Indian (Paperback)
This book was required for me to read for my class. I found the book very dull and dry. It left you thirsty and quite annoyed. It took too, long for Deloria to say what he wanted to say. The book kept pulling you along and made you very tired and sleepy. It is an excellent book to read if you have trouble sleeping.
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