What I am thinking about today:
The other day in my colonial America course we were discussing the first few chapters of Dan Richter’s excellent Facing East from Indian Country and thinking together about the impact of European colonization on native American cultures. Our discussion turned to Western views of progress and whether or not native Americans ever saw their societies as “progressing” or “improving” prior to their contact with European ideas and goods. When, if ever, did native Americans embrace Enlightenment notions of “improvement?”
This led to a conversation about nostalgia. Nostalgia seems to require societal improvement. You cannot look back warmly on a specific period in a society’s history unless that society has advanced–culturally, technologically, etc…– beyond the period for which you are nostalgic.
So at what point did native American cultures start to get nostalgic? Did they long for the “good old days” when they hunted with spears rather than guns? At what point did they reflect longingly on a lost world–a world that existed before their exposure to European ways of life? I know enough about native American history to do a decent job covering it in my upper-division colonial America course, but I do not claim to be an expert. I thus wonder if there is any literature on this idea of post-contact Indian nostalgia. Were native Americans nostalgic before European contact? If so, does this imply that natives did have some notion of “improvement” embedded in their culture?
For some, like Philip J. Deloria in _Playing Indian_, this nostalgia is actually not produced by Native Americans but by those who appropriated Native American beliefs and practices to their own ends.
Delighted to see that you're using Richter in your class! Great way to stir conversation.
fatedplace: Thanks for the Deloria reference. Yes, Richter works quite well with undergraduates on a variety of fronts. We have also had some great discussions about historical interpretation as some of my students are bothered by his use of “imagination” to tell native stories. Thanks for reading!
Perhaps someone could take a look at the oral history of Plains tribes and see if there was any nostalgia about the good ol' days lugging stuff around by dog sled rather than by horse.
Thank you for raising the issue which has been on my mind recently. I can see many manifestations of nostalgia among Native Americans which is necessary for the maintenance of their identity, but I do not know what produces it: their own memories or the recorded memories of the white people. AS to progress they experience it: prehistoric, archaic age, golden age, etc. but how they conceptualized it, I do not know, I woud appreiate any comment or book references.