| dc.description.abstract | As the United States edged its way into imperial power in the post-Civil War era by entering the New Territory, the Indian problem was solved by way of the General Allotment Act of 1887. Dividing a multitude of Indian tribal land into allotments paved the way for an immense group of European settlers to buy land in the new territories. Some other crucial uprooting US policies towards the last indigenous tribes from the early 19th to midway through the 20th century form the basis for further disturbing American Indian cultural authenticity. With the extension of the US Empire a new hierarchy or ordering of civilisation was needed and the new American had to determine his cultural identity. However, the American Indian did not fit into this new American identity. Therefore, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Bureau of Indian Affairs felt the need to reform the indigenous tribes to adapt to this new American identity. Boarding schools were founded to assimilate the native youth according to Euro-American standards in order to “kill the Indian, and save the man”. All these events initiated a decrease, or loss, of American Indian culture. However, despite all the American government’s deliberate efforts of more than a hundred years, complete assimilation or adaptation of American Indians has not succeeded for American Indian culture is still much alive and present in contemporary US society.
Since the 1970s, American Indian writers have described what it means to be Indian in contemporary America. Their work deals with the identity quest of the Indian who is dislocated from his cultural roots and lives in at least two worlds -for even a full-blood Indian is part American, part tribal member-: the in-betweens. Today’s American Indian authors struggle with the Indian image of themselves in light of the past, present and future. Not only are they engaged with events from the remote past but they also dwell upon experiences of a more recent past. To be more precise, they seem to be looking for what is left of the American Indian identity in the present day. Given the circumstance of living in two worlds, can one still be an Indian?
Contemporary American Indian authors mirror the position of the Indian within US society. The authors depict different situations that Indians have to cope with: living on or off the reservation, being converted to Christianity and/or still adhering to their tribal mythologies, and being part of an Indian or a multicultural community. What makes a person an American Indian? Are there any differences between a Christian American Indian and a traditional American Indian, or between a full blood, a mixed blood, or non-Indian? How important is place to the identity of the present-day Indian? What are the challenges the Indian faces? These are questions American Indian authors explore through their characters. The argument for this thesis is that contemporary American Indian writers Louise Erdrich and Sherman Alexie portray the quest for the Holy Grail of the Indian’s identity and the web of choices that spring from being Indian, American, or American Indian. | |
