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Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong (Indigenous Americas)
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Product Description
Raised in suburban Maryland and Oklahoma, Smith dove head first into the political radicalism of the 1970s, working with the American Indian Movement until it dissolved into dysfunction and infighting. Afterward he lived in New York, the city of choice for political exiles, and eventually arrived in Washington, D.C., at the newly minted National Museum of the American Indian (“a bad idea whose time has come”) as a curator. In his journey from fighting activist to federal employee, Smith tells us he has discovered at least two things: there is no one true representation of the American Indian experience, and even the best of intentions sometimes ends in catastrophe. Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong is a highly entertaining and, at times, searing critique of the deeply disputed role of American Indians in the United States. In “A Place Called Irony,” Smith whizzes through his early life, showing us the ironic pop culture signposts that marked this Native American’s coming of age in suburbia: “We would order Chinese food and slap a favorite video into the machine—the Grammy Awards or a Reagan press conference—and argue about Cyndi Lauper or who should coach the Knicks.” In “Lost in Translation,” Smith explores why American Indians are so often misunderstood and misrepresented in today’s media: “We’re lousy television.” In “Every Picture Tells a Story,” Smith remembers his Comanche grandfather as he muses on the images of American Indians as “a half-remembered presence, both comforting and dangerous, lurking just below the surface.”
Smith walks this tightrope between comforting and dangerous, offering unrepentant skepticism and, ultimately, empathy. “This book is called Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong, but it’s a book title, folks, not to be taken literally. Of course I don’t mean everything, just most things. And ‘you’ really means we, as in all of us.”
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #123509 in Books
- Published on: 2009-04-14
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 192 pages
Features
- ISBN13: 9780816656011
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In this acerbic collection of essays, Comanche cultural critic and art curator Smith (Like a Hurricane) riffs on the romantic stereotypes of Indian as spiritual masters and first environmentalists, as tragic victims of technology and civilization, as primal beings brimming with nomad authenticity, their every artifact a gem of folk art. Such tropes, he complains, hide the riotous complexity of the modern Indian experience, which he visits in pieces that explore his grandfather's Christian church, Sitting Bull's savvy manipulation of his media image (he had an agent) and the author's own Comanche forebears, who were both world-class barbarians and avid adopters of the white man's gadgetry. These loose-limbed essays range all over the landscape, from Hollywood westerns to the 1973 siege of Wounded Knee to (somewhat obscurely) the contemporary Indian art scene. Smith doesn't entirely square his view of Indians as just plain folks with his advancing of a unique Indian cultural perspective, but his keen, skeptical eye makes such ironies both amusing and enlightening. Photos. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
In this acerbic collection of essays, Comanche cultural critic and art curator Smith (Like a Hurricane) riffs on the romantic stereotypes of Indian as “spiritual masters and first environmentalists,” as tragic victims of technology and civilization, as primal beings brimming with nomad authenticity, their every artifact a gem of folk art. Such tropes, he complains, hide the riotous complexity of the modern Indian experience, which he visits in pieces that explore his grandfather's Christian church, Sitting Bull's savvy manipulation of his media image (he had an agent) and the author's own Comanche forebears, who were both “world-class barbarians” and avid adopters of the white man's gadgetry. These loose-limbed essays range all over the landscape, from Hollywood westerns to the 1973 siege of Wounded Knee to (somewhat obscurely) the contemporary Indian art scene. Smith doesn't entirely square his view of Indians as “just plain folks” with his advancing of a unique Indian cultural perspective, but his keen, skeptical eye makes such ironies both amusing and enlightening.
About the Author
Customer Reviews
Personal and quirky
Paul Chaat Smith is an associate curator at the National Museum of the American Indian, an institution he once described as "a bad idea whose time has come". That line alone should give warning about the unvarnished opinions he offers in this book of essays, grouped to offer a flow of sorts.
In the earlier parts of the book he discusses how the idea of "Indians" didn't exist until the Europeans arrived. Before that time the Americas was divided up between nations, much as Europe was. There were conflicts between nations, and boundaries changed with time, but that also happened in Europe. It was the Europeans who imposed the idea that all natives were one group of primitive people divided into "tribes", rather than a kaleidoscope of cultures similar to the situation in Europe.
[Note: For an outstanding book on what the Americas were really like before the landing of Columbus, and how the nations of the new world fell, see "1491" by Charles C. Mann, an outstanding book.]
He continues on to explain, often quite amusingly, how movies and other media formed a popular but inaccurate image of native people. (Crazy Horse was nicknamed "Curly" as a kid?!)
Next Smith talks about his involvement with the American Indian Movement. For those who lived through the era, it provides another viewpoint. (A dysfunctional take, by the way.) For younger readers it can serve a brief primer on ancient history.
Then he move into contemporary Indian art. I'll just say I have different tastes than the author, especially regarding performance art.
In the end he returns to the dichotomy between how Indians are viewed and how they really live.
There are parts of this book I really enjoyed, and parts where I disagreed with the author. But it's a short book, and a personal one, and his voice deserves to be heard. If the subject interests you, go ahead and read it. Even when you disagree you'll be forced to think.
Very informative, should be required in schools
This book is well written by someone who knows what it is to be Native. While Blacks and other minorities are well represented in this society, we, the Natives, are a forgotten people.
An excellent book!
This book isn't about "Native Americans". It isn't about political correctness. It isn't about pride or shame. It's a book about people. All people. People and perceptions. It is a book you should read!
