Post Ten: Indians in Unexpected Places and Becoming Mexican American

At first I thought we were in for another heavily conceptual perhaps even esoteric text when reading the introduction to Indians in Unexpected Places, but even though the introduction was heavy on the conceptual, it provided the necessary framework in the essays which were well written and fascinating. It was in the introduction that Philip Deloria outlines the concepts of stereotypes, ideology and discourse. With Deloria's explanation of ideology, we can better understand the mindset of White Americans as they perceived Native American Lakota on the eve of Wounded Knee in 1890. The other Indian incidents of White Clay Creek, Paha Canweknayanka, and Lighting Creek demonstrated a changing white concept of Indian violence against pacified Indians. As Philip Deloria stated his emphasis was to avoid representing Indian History as a study of government policies concerning Indians. "Rather than tracking policy changes, I take as my unifying theme, the changes and persistences found in the ideological discursive frames that non-Indians used to generalize their expectations of Indian people." (p12)

Deloria would reassert Wounded Knee as the iconic end to Indian violence as a means of the Lakota nation to wage war. He compares Wounded Knee to Turners thesis of the closing of the frontier as two converging moments in Western History. David R. Lewis, in his article, goes further to show Turner portraying Indians as "a consolidating agent in our history" posing "a common danger". Deloria exposes Wounded Knee for what it was - a massacre. The eighteen Medals of Honor awarded for the two week campaign demonstrates what white ideology can do when allowed to express itself under perceived threats of Indian violence.

In Deloria's second essay, he reveals that Cody's Wild West Show sustained American's view and fascination of Indian violence and pacification. "Every experience within and around the show helped spectators to a visceral understanding of the expectations surrounding the violence and pacification. (p65) The Indians in Cody's Wild West were "not performing, they were reliving a past in which they remain stuck". (p67) Indian participation in the show was one of mobility, a curiosity to see the world as the show toured European as well as U.S. cities for 30 years. Many actors like Luther Standing Bear became actors in unexpected places trying to find a niche in twentieth century modernity.

With Mexican Americans assimilation into white society was not the kind of goal that many Indians embraced. George J. Sanchez paints a picture of Latinos rejecting naturalization as Zeferino Ramirez did in order to retain their ethnicity. Perhaps because their ethnic background embraced a European past and they didn't share a culture still dominated by reservation style pacification as the Indians did. Deloria shows that Wounded Knee changed dramatically Indian response to white culture. They didn't challenge white culture or rather its authority overtly. Deloria might agree with Sanchez that culture is actively contested. The idea of Indians in unexpected places compares to some degree with a desire of some Mexican Americans to remain culturally invisible - not taking on older cultural traditions while embracing those that help them survive.