Unlearning the Language of Conquest: Scholars Expose Anti-Indianism in America

by Four Arrows (Don Trent Jacobs)

Overview

Responding to anti-Indianism in America, the wide-ranging perspectives culled in Unlearning the Language of Conquest present a provocative account of the contemporary hegemony still at work today, whether conscious or unconscious. Four Arrows has gathered a rich collection of voices and topics, including:

• Waziyatawin Angela Cavender Wilson's "Burning Down the House: Laura Ingalls Wilder and American Colonialism," which probes the mentality of hatred woven within the pages of this iconographic children's literature.
• Vine Deloria's "Conquest Masquerading as Law," examining the effect of anti-Indian prejudice on decisions in U.S. federal law.
• David N. Gibb's "The Question of Whitewashing in American History and Social Science," featuring a candid discussion of the spurious relationship between sources of academic funding and the types of research allowed or discouraged.
• Barbara Alice Mann's "Where Are Your Women? Missing in Action," displaying the exclusion of Native American women in curricula that purport to illuminate the history of Indigenous Peoples.

Bringing to light crucial information and perspectives on an aspect of humanity that pervades not only U.S. history but also current sustainability, sociology, and the ability to craft accurate understandings of the population as a whole, Unlearning the Language of Conquest yields a liberating new lexis for realistic dialogues.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292713260
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	06/01/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Four Arrows (Wahinkpe Topa), also known as Don Trent Jacobs, is a Professor in Fielding Graduate University’s College of Educational Leadership and Change and an Associate Professor in Northern Arizona University’s Educational Leadership Department. Of Cherokee, Creek, and Scots-Irish ancestry, he holds a doctorate from Boise State University focused on indigenous worldviews. Jacobs was Dean of Education at Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and is a Lakota Sun Dancer. Recipient of the Martin Springer Institute for Holocaust Studies Moral Courage Award in 2004, Jacobs currently lives in Mexico, where he works as an activist in behalf of the Seri people.

Table of Contents

• Editor's Note on Chief Seathl's Speech
• Acknowledgments
• Prologue: Red Road, Red Lake—Red Flag! (by Four Arrows)
• Introduction (by Four Arrows)
• 1. Happiness and Indigenous Wisdom in the History of the Americas (by Frank Bracho)
• 2. Adventures in Denial: Ideological Resistance to the Idea That the Iroquois Helped Shape American Democracy (by Bruce E. Johansen)
• 3. Burning Down the House: Laura Ingalls Wilder and American Colonialism (by Waziyatawin Angela Cavender Wilson)
• 4. (Post) Colonial Plainsongs: Toward Native Literary Worldings (by Jodi A. Byrd)
• 5. Conquest Masquerading as Law (by Vine Deloria Jr.)
• 6. Traditional Native Justice: Restoration and Balance, Not "Punishment" (by Rudy Al James [ThlauGooYailthThlee-The First and Oldest Raven])
• 7. Where Are Your Women? Missing in Action (by Barbara Alice Mann)
• 8. Peaceful versus Warlike Societies in Pre-Columbian America: What Do Archaeology and Anthropology Tell Us? (by James DeMeo)
• 9. Ecological Evidence of Large-scale Silviculture by California Indians (by Lee Klinger)
• 10. Preserving the Whole: Principles of Sustainability in Mi'kmaw Forms of Communication (by Trudy Sable)
• 11. The Language of Conquest and the Loss of the Commons (by Chet Bowers)
• 12. Overcoming Hegemony in Native Studies Programs (by Devon A. Mihesuah)
• 13. The Question of Whitewashing in American History and Social Science (by David N. Gibbs)
• 14. Before Predator Came: A Plea for Expanding First Nations Scholarship as European Shadow Work (by David Gabbard)
• 15. Roy Rogers, Twin Heroes, and the Christian Doctrine of Exclusive Salvation (by Four Arrows)
• 16. Western Science and the Loss of Natural Creativity (by Gregory Cajete)
• 17. On the Very Idea of "A Worldview" and of "Alternative Worldviews" (by Bruce Wilshire)
• Epilogue (by Four Arrows)
• Appendix: Essays from The Encyclopedia of American Indian History (by Four Arrows)
  • "The Myth of the Noble Savage"
  • "Indian Education and Social Control"
  • "American Indian Worldviews and Values"
• Index

What People are Saying About This

Daniel R. Wildcat

Outstanding scholarship. . . . Giant first steps towards the goal of providing a truthful and constructive understanding of indigenous worldviews.
— Daniel R. Wildcat, Professor of Sociology and American Indian Studies, Haskell Indian Nations University