The Tribe Called Wannabee: Playing Indian in America and Europe

Abstract

ONE of the oldest and most pervasive forms of American cultural expression, indeed one of the oldest forms of affinity with American culture at the national level, is a 'performance' I call 'playing Indian.' Since the invasion of North America by those 'red hairy men' in the fifteenth century, non-Indians have found the performance of 'playing Indian' a most compelling and obviously satisfying form of traditional expression. Almost from their very arrival in the Americas, Europeans found it useful, perhaps essential, to 'play Indian' in America, to demand that tribal peoples 'play Indian,' and to export the performances back to Europe, where they thrive to date.1 This performance, or set of performances, with many stages, performers, contexts, and variants, has its deepest roots in the establishment of a distinctive American culture. I would insist that it represents one of the ways in which we can demarcate the boundaries of an American identity distinct from that which affiliates with Europe. Curiously, perhaps, 'playing Indian'-since it is so well represented historically in England and Germany, and to a lesser extent, in Russia, Poland, France and Italy-may be one of the ways in which Europeans affiliate with an America that causes them tremendous ambivalence. The performance has significant historical roots and embodiments, some aspects of which (eg: 'white' Indians and stereotypes) have been well-described by myself and other scholars.2 But we shall explore these many a…