Dear Philip Deloria,
I found your chapters in Playing Indian frankly perplexing. I was interested by your points and comparisons of Native Americans being used to affirm American identity by affirming American nationalism and by reassuring American civilization and morality. However, I found myself unable to truly understand your overall argument. While I understood each individual part, I could not comprehend your argument as a whole. I think that, as my classmate Luca McDougall pointed out, because this process of alienating and embracing Native Americans is continuing to this day, and because it is an often overlooked part of American history, it is much more difficult for me to grasp.

Lucy Sandeen

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