Everything you know about Indians is wrong

by Smith, Paul Chaat

Type Book

Rate 0.0 /5

Details

Files

Reviews

Download

Title Statements

Full title :Everything you know about Indians is wrong / Paul Chaat Smith.

Summary

"In this sweeping work of memoir and commentary, leading cultural critic Paul Chaat Smith illustrates with dry wit and brutal honesty the contradictions of life in "the Indian business." Raised in suburban Maryland and Oklahoma, Smith dove head first into the political radicalism of the 1970s, working with the American Indian Movement until it dissolved into dysfunction and infighting. Afterward he lived in New York, the city of choice for political exiles, and eventually arrived in Washington, D.C., at the newly minted National Museum of the American Indian ("a bad idea whose time has come") as a curator. In his journey from fighting activist to federal employee, Smith tells us he has discovered at least two things: there is no one true representation of the American Indian experience, and even the best of intentions sometimes ends in catastrophe. Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong is a highly entertaining and, at times, searing critique of the deeply disputed role of American Indians in the United States. In "A Place Called Irony," Smith whizzes through his early life, showing us the ironic pop culture signposts that marked this Native American's coming of age in suburbia: "We would order Chinese food and slap a favorite video into the machine--the Grammy Awards or a Reagan press conference--and argue about Cyndi Lauper or who should coach the Knicks." In "Lost in Translation," Smith explores why American Indians are so often misunderstood and misrepresented in today's media: "We're lousy television." In "Every Picture Tells a Story," Smith remembers his Comanche grandfather as he muses on the images of American Indians as "a half-remembered presence, both comforting and dangerous, lurking just below the surface." Smith walks this tightrope between comforting and dangerous, offering unrepentant skepticism and, ultimately, empathy. "This book is called Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong, but it's a book title, folks, not to be taken literally. Of course I don't mean everything, just most things. And 'you' really means we, as in all of us.'"--Inside jacket.

Edition Statements

Publication Date:©2009

Publication Statements

Publisher(s):University of Minnesota Press
Place of Publication:Minneapolis
Language:eng
Publication Date:©2009

Notes

Some chapters previously published in various sources between 1992 and 2007.

The Physical Object

Description:193 pages, 4 unnumbered pages of plates : : illustrations (some color) ; : 23 cm.

Edition Identifiers

ISBN:9780816656011, 0816656010, 9780816656028, 0816656029
oclc:ocn277201109
LC Classification:E98.C89
Dewey Decimal:323.1197

Every picture tells a story -- pt. I. States of amnesia -- Lost in translation -- On romanticism -- After the gold rush -- Land of a thousand dances -- The big movie -- The ground beneath our feet -- Homeland insecurity -- pt. II. Everything we make is art -- Americans without tears -- Delta 150 -- Luna remembers -- Standoff in Lethbridge -- Struck by lightning -- Meaning of life -- States of amnesia -- pt. III. Jukebox spiritualism -- A place called irony -- Life during peacetime -- Last gang in town -- From Lake Geneva to the Finland Station -- Ghost in the machine -- Afterword : end of the line -- Acknowledgments -- Publication history.

Subjects

American Indians -- Culture American Indians -- History Indians of North America -- Cultural as… Indians of North America -- Ethnic iden… Indians of North America -- Government … Indians of North America -- Government … Indiens d'Amérique -- Relations avec l'… Native Americans -- Ethnic identity Native Americans -- Government relations Native Americans -- North America Nonfiction Since 1934 Smith, Paul Chaat