''Playing Indian'' is a 1998

non-fiction Non-fiction (or nonfiction) is any document or content (media), media content that attempts, in good faith, to convey information only about the real life, real world, rather than being grounded in imagination. Non-fiction typically aims to pre ...

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

by Philip J. Deloria, which explores the history of the conflicted relationship white America has with

Native American peoples In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...

. It explores the common historical and contemporary societal pattern of non-Natives simultaneously mimicking stereotypical ideas and imagery of "Indians" and "Indianness" (the "Playing Indian" of the title), in a quest for National identity in particular, while also denigrating, dismissing, and making invisible real, contemporary

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n people.

Overview

The focus is on how and why white Americans mimic

stereotypical In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalization, generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can ...

ideas of Indian traditions, images, spiritual ceremonies, and clothing, citing examples such as the

Indian princess The Indian princess or Native American princess is usually a stereotypical and inaccurate representation of a Native American or other Indigenous woman of the Americas. The term "princess" was often mistakenly applied to the daughters of triba ...

Boston Tea Party The Boston Tea Party was a seminal American protest, political and Mercantilism, mercantile protest on December 16, 1773, during the American Revolution. Initiated by Sons of Liberty activists in Boston in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colo ...

, the

Improved Order of Red Men The Improved Order of Red Men is a List of civic, fraternal, service, and professional organizations, fraternal organization established in North America in 1834. It claims direct descent from the colonial era Sons of Liberty. Their rituals and ...

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was an American political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789, as the Tammany Society. It became the main local ...

Scouting Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth social movement, movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activi ...

societies like the

Order of the Arrow The Order of the Arrow (OA) is the honor society of Scouting America, composed of Scouts and Scouters who best exemplify the Scout Promise, Scout Oath and Scout Law, Law in their daily lives as elected by their peers. It was founded as a camp fr ...

, and in more recent decades,

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

s and

New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

rs. Referring to

D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, literary critic, travel writer, essayist, and painter. His modernist works reflect on modernity, social alienation ...

's '' Studies in Classic American Literature'', Deloria argues that white Americans have used an idealized image of the anachronistic Indian of historical times, and the practice of "playing Indian" to create their own national identity; both identifying with Indians as liberated, patriotic

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

inhabitants in touch with nature, while simultaneously denigrating real, contemporary Native American people as ignorant, savage

others Others or The Others may refer to: Fictional characters * Others (''A Song of Ice and Fire''), supernatural creatures in the fictional world of George R. R. Martin's fantasy series ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' * Others (''Lost''), mysterious inh ...

, incapable or unworthy of preserving their own cultures. "Disguise readily calls the notion of fixed identity into question," writes Deloria. "At the same time, however, wearing a mask also makes one self-conscious of a ''real'' 'me' underneath." The book is a reworking of Deloria's 1994

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

doctoral dissertation. He explores the white American dual fascination with "the vanishing Indian" and the idea that the white man can then be the true inheritor and preserver of authentic "Indianness", with the only "authentic" Indians being dead and in the past. A recurring trope in this pattern is "the Indian 'Death Speech'", an example he cites is from

James Fenimore Cooper James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonial and indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought h ...

's ''The Redskins'', "You hear my voice for the last time. I shall soon cease to speak." Deloria writes that, "not coincidentally" the first "lodges" of groups like Order of the Red Men were named after these literary figures, created by colonists to verbalize the wishes of the colonists, Deloria refers to

David Roediger David R. Roediger (born July 13, 1952) is the Foundation Distinguished Professor of American Studies and History at the University of Kansas, where he has been since the fall of 2014. Previously, he was an American Kendrick C. Babcock Professor o ...

's ''The Wages of Whiteness'', a similar book about the construction of the white race in opposition to black slaves; his book has itself been compared to scholarly work on

blackface Blackface is the practice of performers using burned cork, shoe polish, or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of black people on stage or in entertainment. Scholarship on the origins or definition of blackface vary with some taking a glo ...

and to the work of Richard White.

References

{{Reflist 1998 non-fiction books Native American cultural appropriation English-language non-fiction books Native Americans in popular culture Non-fiction books about Native Americans Yale University Press books

Overview

See also

References