This chatty book of facts, opinions and talking points is a
modern look at the native peoples of North America and how
they have been, and are, treated by the Americans and
Canadians. THE INCONVENIENT INDIAN stopped invading
settlers and exploiters of mineral wealth from taking all
they wanted, and became a magnified foe, to the extent that
a plaque still stands in Almo, Idaho, to mark a most
horrible Indian massacre which never occurred. The battle
at Little Big Horn did occur, but by and large the native
people received far worse treatment than they gave.
Thomas King, a Cherokee, takes a look at history without
calling this a history book; no footnotes, he tells us.
King points out that Canada largely fought with the Metis,
who were part Indian and part English or French. He goes
on to look at portrayals in literature and art, including
stamps and currency; at Wild West shows where at least the
Indian performers were paid and fed, and got to travel
rather than sit on a reservation.
Then of course, there came Hollywood with its many
westerns. Will Rogers, a Cherokee, is one of only two
Natives to get stars on the Walk of Fame. There are more
cartoon characters and dogs honoured on that Walk. Rogers
never played an Indian role, but the other man so honoured
was Jay Silverheels, whose most famous role was Tonto.
Taylor Lautner, recent star in the Twilight series, was
initially a white actor playing a Quilute but then
discovered that he had forbears who were Ottowa and
Potawatomi. King is wry about the previous portrayal as
bloodthirsty savages having changed to vampire-killing
werewolves. Black actors have had many starring roles in
the past few decades, and a few Oscars, but aside from
Graham Greene in Dances with Wolves and Chief Dan George
in Little Big Man (I know him better from The Outlaw
Josey Wales, not mentioned by King), Natives have not
received Academy nominations and largely pay minor typecast
roles. Northern Exposure is seen as the best television
series for portraying and casting Natives.
King then goes into a lengthy look at the history of
commerce and killing between the races, the difficulty of
gaining votes for Natives (when even Blacks and women could
vote). The reader has to excuse his dwelling on negative
situations; it's his family, after all. Today's Natives
live modern lives informed by traditional values, he says,
and he would be fascinated to know what will happen to them
over the next five hundred years. This is a very
informative book, with a slight but not unpleasant bias,
and anyone interested in the background would enjoy it as
dip-into reading, with a thorough read ideal for research
on a project.
In The Inconvenient Indian, Thomas King offers a deeply
knowing, darkly funny, unabashedly opinionated, and utterly
unconventional account of Indian-White relations in North
America since initial contact. Ranging freely across the
centuries and the Canada-U.S. border, King debunks
fabricated stories of Indian savagery and White heroism,
takes an oblique look at Indians (and cowboys) in film and
popular culture, wrestles with the history of Native
American resistance and his own experiences as a Native
rights activist, and articulates a profound, revolutionary
understanding of the cumulative effects of ever-shifting
laws and treaties on Native peoples and lands.
Suffused with wit, anger, perception, and wisdom, The
Inconvenient Indian is at once an engaging chronicle and a
devastating subversion of history, insightfully distilling
what it means to be “Indian” in North America. It is a
critical and personal meditation that sees Native American
history not as a straight line but rather as a circle in
which the same absurd, tragic dynamics are played out over
and over again. At the heart of the dysfunctional
relationship between Indians and Whites, King writes, is
land: “The issue has always been land.” With that insight,
the history inflicted on the indigenous peoples of North
America—broken treaties, forced removals, genocidal
violence, and racist stereotypes—sharpens into focus. Both
timeless and timely, The Inconvenient Indian ultimately
rejects the pessimism and cynicism with which Natives and
Whites regard one another to chart a new and just way
forward for Indians and non-Indians alike
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy