The works of John Milton Oskison, Cherokee writer, originally published in popular magazines, have been out of print since the 1920s. Oskison's stories have often been dismissed as sentimental and lacking a Native American focus; a more diligent reading, however, shows subtle and complex Native American motifs and concerns. John Oskison was born in Indian Territory in 1874, attended Willie Halsell College, Stanford and Harvard Universities, and then began to write for major New York magazines. It was not necessarily popular nor politically advantageous at that time to be known as Indian, especially if one wished to influence public opinion as a journalist. Oskison's Native American point of view and sympathy are strongly coded in the text, embedded in narrative displacements and rhetorical silences. His are "writerly" texts; at the most superficial level readers may see only populist and assimilationist "messages," but the narrative complexities belie such easy readings. Oskison grappled with the issues of being a highly educated mixed-blood trying to defend a tribal heritage while speaking in the most public arenas. This dissertation is a critical examination of the way this struggle manifests itself in his literary production.

The commitment to community shared by Native American authors such as N. Scott Momaday, James Welch, and Louise Erdrich is partially evinced by each author's readiness to inscribe in novel form the values and traditions of the tribal community or communities with which he/she is closely associated. Many students of the novel will attest to its pliant, sometimes transmutable nature; nevertheless, as this study attempts to make clear, there are some reasons why Native American authors should reconsider using the novel as a means to express their tribal communities' values and traditions. Unambivalent prescriptions, however, seem more suited to the requirements of law or medicine; and so this study also examines some of the reasons why Native American authors should continue to embrace this relatively "new" art form persistently termed the novel.

No description available.

American Indians have not vanished, As of the 1970's, they are 800,000 strong and increasing. Their voices, long muffled, are finally penetrating the consciousness of mainstream Americans, and people have begun to realize that America's treatment of the Indians constitutes a national disgrace.One aspect of the shameful treatment of Indians is the racism perpetuated by literature about Indians and by the neglect of literature by Indians. From its earliest to its latest depictions of Indians, literature has frequently drawn stereotyped images and presented distorted information. There are four major stereotypes: the noble red man, the ignoble savage, the comic buffoon, and the helpless victim. Once such unrealistic portraits have been engraved on the imagination and have educed prejudiced attitudes, the stereotypes are difficult, if not impossible, to eradicate. Research has evidenced that young minds are note impressionable than those of adults and more malleable. Therefore, the books they read are of crucial importance. But heretofore in-depth studies of the quality of young people's literature by and about American Indians have been lacking.Careful evaluation of purportedly factual information books for children and adolescents reveals that many contain misinformation and distortion but that those published in the first half of the 1970's are generally better than earlier ones in several respects: they treat more diverse and lesser known culture groups, consider both sides of conflicts, tackle controversial subjects, evaluate critically government policies, and present an Indian point of view.Analysis of children's fiction, adolescents' novels, biographies, and autobiographies reveals that books employing all of the major stereotypes are still being published, but that careful selection enables youngsters to find memorable, high-quality books which draw a wide variety of realistic, humane images. Recently some books have been published especially for Indian school children, whose self-images have been deleteriously affected by the images whites have of them.A comparison of children's collections of folktales with the sources from which they were adapted reveals the kinds of changes that have been made and determines that some are justifiable in the interests of making the Indian oral heritage comprehensible to non-Indian youngsters and that some are not because they violate the integrity of the tales. But although there are problems in translating and adapting the tales, they are worth the trouble, for they are entertaining and instructive; they offer a different view of reality, which may be more accurate than heretofore supposed. Numerous worthwhile adaptations are available.The functions and forms of traditional Indian poetry are different from those of other American poetry and may be puzzling to non-Indian students. Nevertheless, translators are obligated to preserve the original form and spirit insofar as possible. Successful compromises have been effected, and such poetry offers much enjoyment, especially to youngsters capable of an affective response of the senses. The nature metaphors and symbols that bespeak an attitude of wonder and awe have great appeal, as do the emphasis on the oneness of nature and the affirmation of life.Contemporary poetry is the genre in which more Indian writers are working than any other. A remnant of that faith in the efficacy of the poetic word which ancient singers had still inheres in modern poets and gives their work a "yea-saying" tone which attracts young poetry enthusiasts. The vivid images and the emphasis on continuity with the past and Mother Earth are especially appealing. Like mainstream poetry in some respects, Indian poetry has aspects that make it unique. The voices of modern poets join others of the present and past in asking that Indians be allowed to take their rightful places in a truly pluralistic America.

This thesis considers the critical implications of a cross-cultural reading of First Nations women’s writing in this time of sensitivity to the issues of appropriation and power inequities between dominant and minority cultures. A genre-based study, it is written from a deliberately split perspective: reading as both a white academic implicated in the dominant culture's production of meaning and value, and as a lesbian alienated from these same processes, I both propose and perform several modes of response to First Nations texts. Interspersed with a conventional commentary is a secondary, personal commentary that questions and qualifies the claims of the critical. Then, another level of response, in the form of fiction and poetry based on my own experiences growing up with my Assiniboine sister, also proposes the appropriateness, in this critical power dynamic, of a third response of simply answering story with story. Chapter One examines the construction of individual identity and responsibility in Maria Campbell's Halfbreed, particularly as the text demands an emotionally-engaged response conventionally discouraged in critical discourse, and as a result redefines the genre of autobiography. Chapter Two considers the possibility of a communal and spiritual, as well as an individual, emotional, response to First Nations texts, examining the community of stories that comprise each of the novels Slash, In Search of April Raintree, and Honour the Sun. From this consideration of narrative as eliciting emotional and spiritual reading practices, Chapter Three discusses the nature of language itself as a vehicle of spiritual transformation and subversion, specifically in the poetry of Annharte and Beth Cuthand. Chapter Four, on the mixed-genre The Book of Jessica, shifts focus from the discursive strategies of First Nations writing, to examining the way these practices redefine time and history as newly accessible to First Nations spiritual construction. Finally, the Conclusion re-examines the reading strategies developed throughout the thesis, noting the pitfalls they avoid, while discussing their limitations as cross-cultural tools. The ultimate effect is to propose the very beginning of the kinds of changes the academy must consider for a truly non-appropriative cross-cultural interaction.

This thesis considers the critical implications of a cross-cultural reading of First Nations women’s writing in this time of sensitivity to the issues of appropriation and power inequities between dominant and minority cultures. A genre-based study, it is written from a deliberately split perspective: reading as both a white academic implicated in the dominant culture's production of meaning and value, and as a lesbian alienated from these same processes, I both propose and perform several modes of response to First Nations texts. Interspersed with a conventional commentary is a secondary, personal commentary that questions and qualifies the claims of the critical. Then, another level of response, in the form of fiction and poetry based on my own experiences growing up with my Assiniboine sister, also proposes the appropriateness, in this critical power dynamic, of a third response of simply answering story with story. Chapter One examines the construction of individual identity and responsibility in Maria Campbell's Halfbreed, particularly as the text demands an emotionally-engaged response conventionally discouraged in critical discourse, and as a result redefines the genre of autobiography. Chapter Two considers the possibility of a communal and spiritual, as well as an individual, emotional, response to First Nations texts, examining the community of stories that comprise each of the novels Slash, In Search of April Raintree, and Honour the Sun. From this consideration of narrative as eliciting emotional and spiritual reading practices, Chapter Three discusses the nature of language itself as a vehicle of spiritual transformation and subversion, specifically in the poetry of Annharte and Beth Cuthand. Chapter Four, on the mixed-genre The Book of Jessica, shifts focus from the discursive strategies of First Nations writing, to examining the way these practices redefine time and history as newly accessible to First Nations spiritual construction. Finally, the Conclusion re-examines the reading strategies developed throughout the thesis, noting the pitfalls they avoid, while discussing their limitations as cross-cultural tools. The ultimate effect is to propose the very beginning of the kinds of changes the academy must consider for a truly non-appropriative cross-cultural interaction. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

A Native American Aesthetic: The Attitude of Relationship discusses issues of identity that arise from my own experience and in the writing of N. Scott Momaday, James Welch, Leslie Silko, and Louise Erdrich.

This dissertation argues that numerous parallels exist between Native American literature, especially that by women, and contemporary feminist literary and cultural theories, as both seek to undermine the hierarchy of voice: who can speak? what can be said? when? how? under what conditions? After the ideas find voice, what action is permitted to women? All of these factors influence what African American cultural theorist bell hooks terms the revolutionary gesture of "coming to voice." These essays explore the ways Native American women have voiced their lives through the oral tradition and through writing. For Native American women of mixed blood, the crucial search for identity and voice must frequently be conducted in the language of the colonizer, English, and in concert with a concern for community and landscape. Among the topics addressed in the study are (1) the negotiation of identity of those who must act in more than one culture; (2) ethnocentrism in ethnographic reports of tribal women's lives; (3) misogyny in a "canonical" Native American text; (4) the ethics of intercultural literary collaboration; (5) commonality in inter-cultural texts; and (6) transformation through rejection of Western privileging of opposition, polarity, and hierarchy.

Not available / text

published_or_final_version / English / Master / Master of Philosophy