Playing Indian

 ( 1998 Non-fiction Books ) 

Playing Indian is a 1998 non-fiction book by Philip J. Deloria, which explores the history of the conflicted relationship white America has with Native American peoples. 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 people.

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Overview The focus is on how and why white Americans mimic stereotypical ideas of Indian traditions, images, spiritual ceremonies, and clothing, citing examples such as the Indian princess, Boston Tea Party, the Improved Order of Red Men, Tammany Hall, Scouting societies like the Order of the Arrow, and in more recent decades, and . Referring to D. H. Lawrence'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 inhabitants in touch with nature, while simultaneously denigrating real, contemporary Native American people as ignorant, savage others, incapable or unworthy of preserving their own cultures.

Philip J. Deloria (1999). 9780300080674, Yale University Press. . ISBN 9780300080674

"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 University 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'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's The Wages of Whiteness, a similar book about the construction of the white race in opposition to black slaves;

Karen Halttunen (2025). 9780470691090, John Wiley and Sons. . ISBN 9780470691090

his book has itself been compared to scholarly work on blackface and to the work of Richard White.

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See also

• Stereotypes of Indigenous peoples of Canada and the United States
• Vanishing Indian
• Cultural appropriation
• Legend of the Rainbow Warriors
• Noble savage
• Order of the Arrow
• Improved Order of Red Men
• Plastic shaman
• Pretendian

Categories: 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

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