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abstract: There exists a significant overlap between American Indian history and American history, yet historians often treat the two separately. The intersection has grown over time, increasingly so in the 20th and 21st centuries. Over time a process of syncretism has taken place wherein American Indians have been able to take their tribal histories and heritage and merge them with the elements of the dominant culture as they see fit. Many American Indians have found that they are able to use their cultural heritage to educate others using mainstream methods. Brummett Echohawk, a Pawnee Indian from Pawnee, Oklahoma demonstrated the ways in which American Indian history merged with the larger American historical narrative through his knowledge of Pawnee history and heritage, American history, and his active participation in mainstream society throughout the 20th and into the 21st century. As a student in a government run Indian boarding school, a soldier of the famed 45th "Thunderbird" Infantry Division in World War II, and a successful artist, writer and public speaker, he offered a view of how one could employ syncretism to the advantage of all. Using an ethnohistorical approach to the subject allows a consideration of Brummett Echohawk as an individual, a representative of the Pawnee people, American Indians generally, and as an American. The ethnohistorical approach also helps elucidate the connection he made between success in life and truly fulfilling the Pawnee meaning behind their name Chaticks-si-chaticks, Men of men. Personal papers, published writings, as well as published and privately owned art (ranging from fine art in prestigious galleries to comic strips) provide insight as to how Echohawk made clear the connections between the Pawnee (and American Indian) past and American history. Interviews with family members, friends, and Pawnee veterans also demonstrate the significance of his life for the Pawnee people and the United States, particularly in terms of the martial tradition. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. History 2012

Master of Arts / Department of Communication Studies, Theatre, and Dance / Timothy R. Steffensmeier / The 2008 presidential campaign controversy surrounding Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s sermons had the potential to derail Barack Obama’s candidacy. At the heart of the controversy was race, specifically Whiteness. Obama’s speech “A More Perfect Union” is perhaps one of the most significant political speeches addressing race to date, and warrants analysis. However, Barry Brummett’s book Rhetorical Dimensions of Popular Culture (1991) argues the critic should not be limited to discrete traditional texts, rather should be able to break outside such traditional speaker-focused boundaries. Brummett’s mosaic model allows an exploration of the intersection between popular and political rhetoric of Obama and The Daily Show. I will argue from the intersection we see the emergence of the comic frame as a homology that links the disparate texts of Obama and TDS. I will argue the reason the comic frame emerges from the texts is because there is a societal mandate for the comic frame. Thus, I will ultimately argue the mandate for the comic frame can be better understood as a social movement. However, it is a movement comprised of numerous individual movements, and warrants a new term: meta-movement. Obama and TDS are not leaders of this meta-movement, but instead should be seen as contributors. Brummett urges the critic to consider “the political or ideological interests served by ordering a rhetorical transaction in a certain way” (1991, p. 98). I will argue constructing the rhetoric of Obama and TDS with the comic frame serves the ideological interests of those who are fighting for social justice and working to subvert Whiteness. Thus, I have named the meta-movement to which Obama and TDS contribute a critical optimist movement, because the comic frame provides the tools to be critical of hegemony while ultimately reinforcing the optimistic assumption of the comic frame: all humans are ultimately both flawed and good.