Citizen Indians

by Maddox, Lucy

• ISBN13: 9780801443541
• ISBN10: 0801443547
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-03-31
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

Lucy Maddox examines the work of American Indian intellectuals and reformers in the context of the Society of American Indians, which brought together educated, professional Indians in a period when the "Indian question" loomed large. These thinkers belonged to the first generation of middle-class American Indians more concerned with racial categories and civil rights than with the status of individual tribes. They confronted acute crises: the imposition of land allotments, the abrogation of the treaty process, the removal of Indian children to boarding schools, and the continuing denial of birthright citizenship to Indians that maintained their status as wards of the state. By adapting forms of public discourse and performance already familiar to white audiences, Maddox argues, American Indian reformers could more effectively pursue self-representation and political autonomy.

Author Biography

Lucy Maddox is Professor of English at Georgetown University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
A Note on Sources	p. ix
Introduction: Going Public	p. 1
A Mighty Drama: The Politics of Performance	p. 17
General Principles and Universal Interests: The Politics of Reform	p. 54
For the Good of the Indian Race: The Reform of Politics	p. 89
The Progressive Road of Life: Writing and Reform	p. 126
Conclusion: A Present and a Future	p. 166
Notes	p. 177
Index	p. 201
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