Reimagining Indians: Native Americans Through Anglo Eyes, 1880-1940

ISBN-10
6610473560
ISBN-13
9786610473564
Series
Reimagining Indians
Category
American literature
Pages
273
Language
English
Published
2000
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Author
Sherry Lynn Smith

Description

This is an investigation of a group of Anglo-American writers whose books about Native Americans helped reshape Americans' understanding of Indian peoples at the turn of the 20th century. Hailing from the Eastern United States, these men and women travelled to the American West and discovered "exotics" in their midst. Drawn to Indian cultures as alternatives to what they found distasteful about modern American culture, these writers produced a body of work that celebrates Indian cultures, religions, artistry and simple humanity. Although these writers were not academically trained ethnographists, their books represent popular versions of ethnography. In revealing their own doubts about the superiority of European-American culture, they sought to provide a favourable climate for Indian cultural survival in a world indisputably dominated by non-Indians. They also encouraged notions of cultural relativism, pluralism and tolerance in American thought. For the historian and general reader alike, this volume speaks to broad themes of American cultural history, Native American history, and the history of the American West.

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