Re: JA Clifton and the Chippewa

Mary Ritchie (ritchie@cs.uwp.edu)
Wed, 6 Apr 1994 19:41:17 -0500


James Clifton has been asked to leave just about every reservation in the
state of Wisconsin. He is the "expert" anthropologist on the people
called Potawatomi by Europeans -- my tribe. One of his most recent works
is something he called *The Invented Indian* wherein he edits/publishes
articles by a variety of authors which question the authenticity of
Indianness unless it is understood as an invention of tribal people to
garner some kind of media/academic/you-name-it political power.

Clifton's contribution to the volume notes that he thought the had the
best interests of the (I think) Kansas Potawatomi at heart and that they
somehow turned on him and he's really pissed! That's a pretty boiled
version, but it's just about the whole of it. So, he does this diatribe
on Indianness...and ends it by listing the 69 things that Indian people are
likely to use as a rebuttal/retort to his twisted tome. In other words,
he's saying that he's not making any room for other points of view on what
he wrote...he's made a real nice tautology, and a whole bunch of enemies
to add to the list of his growing non-admirers.

Good luck with your presentation. BTW, what did the boy have to say
regarding the spearing?

Mary Ritchie, of the people Europeans called Potawatomi (not of Kansas,
rather of Wisconsin)