The Paradox of American Identity

Dear Philip Deloria,

First and foremost, thank you for addressing the question I’ve had since elementary school, when I first learned about the Boston Tea Party: why did the colonists dress up like Native Americans? I appreciate the way you analyzed the nuances of this issue, doing the necessary work of complicating the story we are told of American identity. I am fascinated by the paradox you explain, that the development of an American identity was contingent on “playing Indian,” while American history is characterized by the often violent disenfranchisement of Native Americans. This idea of the “noble savage” is maddeningly complicated, as is most of American identity. I pose the same question to most of the authors we’ve read, which is: how do you think we right this wrong? Not just in terms of literally supporting Native Americans, but also in our sense of national identity. For example, in the logos of sports teams like the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, NFL’s Washington Redskins, and MLB’s Cleveland Indians, we can see the exploitation of Native Americans, since they are portrayed in stereotypical ways. However, many Americans refuse to acknowledge that, instead viewing the representation as demonstrating an elevation and appreciation of Native Americans. So today we continue to see this paradox of the noble savage, wherein Native Americans are represented as American, but also caricatured in a way that echoes historic discrimination. How do we reconcile this? How do we answer the question of “what then, is the American, this new man?”

Sincerely,
Julia Chaffers

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