ABSTRACT

This is an explosive collection of essays, written by leading scholars of North American Indians, most of them heavily involved in service and applied work, often on behalf of Indian clients, communities, and organizations. In an area saturated with deadening, consciously politicized orthodoxy, these seventeen essays aim at nothing less than the reconstruction of our understanding of the American Indian-past and presentThe volume examines in careful, accurate but uncompromising ways the recent construction of the prevailing conventional story-line about ""America's most favored underclass."" The first eight essays introduce the volume and treat a variety of specific invented traditions concerning Indians. These are followed by four essays on broader, thematic issues related to the demographic, religious, cultural, and kinship elements in Indian studies. The final five chapters express a comparative perspective: from Anglo and French Canada, Europe, from inside the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and from a legal position.The Invented Indian explores how cultural fictions promote divisiveness and translate into policy. Throughout, the volume reveals a deep and abiding respect for Indians, their histories, and their cultures, saving its critiques for jaundiced academics and callow politicians. Representing years of cooperative effort, this work brings together a group providing breadth and balance. Far more than a critical collection, it is a constructive effort to make sense of a field displaying empirical confusions and moral muddles. The volume will be of interest to anthropologists, professionals in Indian studies, and policymakers.

chapter 1|28 pages

Introduction

Memoir, Exegesis

chapter 2|20 pages

The Indian Story

A Cultural Fiction

chapter 3|22 pages

Pride and Prejudice

The Pocahontas Myth and the Pamunkey

chapter 4|20 pages

Squanto and the Pilgrims

On Planting Corn “in the manner of the Indians”

chapter 5|16 pages

A Sweet Small Something

Maple Sugaring in the New World

chapter 7|16 pages

Mother Earth

An American Myth

chapter 8|24 pages

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

Was the Indian Really Egalitarian?

chapter 9|24 pages

Their Numbers Become Thick

Native American Historical Demography as Expiation

chapter 10|18 pages

Primal Gaia

Primitivists and Plastic Medicine Men

chapter 11|16 pages

A Legacy of Misperception and Invention

The Omaha Indians in Anthropology

chapter 12|28 pages

Validity Is Not Authenticity

Distinguishing Two Components of Truth

chapter 13|16 pages

Ethical Advocacy Versus Propaganda

Canada’s Indian Support Groups 1

chapter 14|20 pages

Inside BIA

Or, “We’re Getting Rid of All These Honkies”

chapter 15|22 pages

When Fictions Take Hostages

chapter 16|20 pages

Europe’s Indians

chapter 17|38 pages

White Ghosts, Red Shadows

The Reduction of North American Natives