American Indian Studies: Home

This collection of essays brings to college students and the general public a scholarly, yet accessible and provocative text in Native American Studies. The contributors draw upon their expertise in such diverse disciplines as economics, education, film studies, history, linguistics, literature, museum studies, popular culture, and religion. Each essay highlights a particular aspect of Native American experience, from the oppressive indoctrination of boarding schools to the successful strategic planning of Indian casinos to the exciting creativity of Native American literature. In addition, many of the essays introduce the reader to the disciplines through which we can approach this important and fascinating topic, engagingly taking the reader through the process of how historians or economists or literary scholars go about their work.

For thousands of years, American Indian cultures have recorded their truths in the narratives and metaphors of oral tradition. Stories, languages, and artifacts, such as glyphs and drawings, all carry Indigenous knowledge, directly contributing to American Indian rhetorical structures that have proven resistant--and sometimes antithetical--to Western academic discourse. It is this tradition that Kimberly G. Wieser seeks to restore in Back to the Blanket, as she explores the rich possibilities that Native notions of relatedness offer for understanding American Indian knowledge, arguments, and perspectives. Back to the Blanket analyzes a wide array of American Indian rhetorical traditions, then applies them in close readings of writings, speeches, and other forms of communication by historical and present-day figures. Wieser turns this pathbreaking approach to modes of thinking found in the oratory of eighteenth-century Mohegan and Presbyterian cleric Samson Occom, visual communication in Laguna Pueblo author Leslie Marmon Silko's Almanac of the Dead, patterns of honesty and manipulation in the speeches of former president George W. Bush, and rhetorics and relationships in the communication of Indigenous leaders such as Ada-gal'kala, Tsi'yugûnsi'ni, and Inoli. Exploring the multimodal rhetorics--oral, written, material, visual, embodied, kinesthetic--that create meaning in historical discourse, Wieser argues for the rediscovery and practice of traditional Native modes of communication--a modern-day "going back to the blanket," or returning to Native practices. Her work shows how these Indigenous insights might be applied in models of education for Native American students, in Native American communities more broadly, and in transcultural communication, negotiation, debate, and decision making.  

This guide to Native American history and culture outlines new ways of understanding American Indian cultures in contemporary contexts. Native American Studies covers key issues such as the intimate relationship of culture to land; the nature of cultural exchange and conflict in the period after European contact; the unique relationship of Native communities with the United States government; the significance of language; the vitality of contemporary cultures; and the variety of Native artistic styles, from literature and poetry to painting and sculpture to performance arts. nbsp; This thematic approach places history, culture, and intellectual production in the contexts of politics and power. Using specific examples throughout the book, the authors portray the culture of Native Americans from the viewpoints of Native people as well as from those of non-Native Americans.

A collection of readings that speak to common experiences of Indian people, intended to spark discussion on the culture, histories, and contemporary issues which have shaped American Indians. Contemporary issues such as preservation of culture, religious freedom, gaming, and health are placed in their historical and cultural context. Many selections are written by American Indian scholars and journalists. Some topics include Crow kinship systems, Indian tribes and pan- Indianism in 20th century culture, and diabetes among Native Americans.