Description
In Indian Country: Essays on Contemporary Native Culture, Gail Guthrie Valaskakis uses a cultural studies approach to offer a unique perspective on Native political struggle and cultural conflict in both Canada and the United States. She reflects on treaty rights and traditionalism, media warriors, Indian princesses, powwow, museums, art, and nationhood. According to Valaskakis, Native and non-Native people construct both who they are and their relations with each other in narratives that circulate through art, anthropological method, cultural appropriation, and Native reappropriation. For Native peoples and Others, untangling the pastùpersonal, political, and culturalùcan help to make sense of current struggles over power and identity that define the Native experience today. Grounded in theory and threaded with Native voices and evocative descriptions of ôIndianö experience (including the author's), the essays interweave historical and political process, personal narrative, and cultural critique. This book is an important contribution to Native studies that will appeal to anyone interested in First Nations' experience and popular culture. Chapters include: Rights and Warriors: Media Memories and Oka; Sacajawea and Her Sisters: Images and Native Women; Dance Me Inside: Pow Wow and Being Indian; and Blood Borders: Being Indian and Belonging.