I'm waiting to see reviews (or to see them at my local theatre) of The
Black Robe and Dark Wind. What's interesting about all these productions
are that they purport to tell the "authentic" story of Indian people
from the Euro-American perspective. The hook for legitimizing these
portrayals has been through the employment of Indian actors or through
the consulation of Indians about their culture. Nonetheless, the
primary character is still a non-Indian (whether Franciscan priest,
vagabond soldier, or police chief).
The best explaination I've heard on this revisionism phenomena was from
Vine Deloria Jr. He once explained the cyclical elements of publishing
from this deconstructionist framework:
1) Indians raise hell about their situation(s) through anarchy;
2) Liberal America "discovers" the Indian cause (as a surrogate to their
own ongoing injustices);
3) Indians are brought out of the woodwork to present their causes. A
Brief window of opportunity is afforded to the lucky few to publish and
present their own productions;
4) Liberal America decides that Indians are too esoteric so a cadre of
non-Indian interpreters is spawned, the result of which is the elimination
of Indian authors/producers from the status-quo;
5) Indian American falls back into oblivion; and
6) The cycle starts all over again!
Deloria basically indicated that he was among the "lucky few" and that he
was at a peak during this "window of opportunity." He then qualified that
he would never have attained the same status in the short term if he had
"arrived" at another part of this vicious publishing cycle.
I think the above perceptions (which may be clouded my own faulty recollections)
are a good basis upon which to examine the fit or misfit of the Native
American public in the American mainstream. I find it kind of incongruous
that we readily defer to what is the equivalent of "Mr/Ms Joe Public" in
Indian land and consider them as "experts" in all matters pertaining to
Indian-ness. If we reversed the role and asked the common American (whom
ever that is) to comment on something, we call that "an opinion." My
sentiment is that we need to create or access a pool of Indian people who
are qualified to present these issues on the basis their accomplishments
(whether culture-based or academically learned).
Ted Jojola
Native American Studies
University of New Mexico