Indian Work

by Usner, Daniel H., Jr.

• ISBN13: 9780674033498
• ISBN10: 0674033493
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-04-27
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

"To Have Been Struck For So Long Inside An Invented opposition between authenticity and annihilation is one of the most enduring and enigmatic legacies of colonialism. American Indian people still too often must confront either/or expectations about cultural tradition and economic innovation. Time-less culture, although admired and even imitated by non-Indians in various ways, purportedly hinders successful change among Indian societies. Entanglement in global economic processes, for better or worse, is also supposed to destroy cultural integrity. This unfortunate discourse conceals how dynamic and durable societies actually try to blend tradition with innovation while they accommodate and resist powerful forces. American Indian engagement with commerce through numerous and various means, over a long span of time, has consistently defied the narrow choices that observers insisted upon seeing." -from the book Book jacket.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Introduction: The Pursuit of Livelihood and the Production of Language	p. 1
Inventing the Hunter State: Iroquois Livelihood in Jeffersonian America	p. 18
Narratives of Decline and Disappearance: The Changing Presence of American Indians in Early Natchez	p. 42
The Discourse over Poverty: Indian Treaty Rights and Welfare Policy	p. 69
Perceptions of Authenticity and Passivity: Indian Basket Making in Post-Civil War Louisiana	p. 93
Primitivism and Tourism: Indian Livelihood in D. H. Lawrence's New Mexico	p. 117
Conclusion	p. 141
Notes	p. 149
Acknowledgments	p. 189
Index	p. 193
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