American Indian Culture and Research Journal

The purpose of this paper is to develop more fully for the Southern Coast Salish the recently published chronology that describes and analyzes the effects of European-introduced diseases and illnesses on the aboriginal populations of the Northwest Coast. A brief description of aboriginal population estimates and social structure is followed by a discussion of the nature of indigenous diseases and illnesses; last we present an analysis of the impact of introduced sicknesses on population, social structure, ceremonialism, and other aspects of traditional Southern Coast Salish culture. The impetus for this research stems from two sources. First, after the completion of an ethnographic study of the contemporary health care system and the lay health care-seeking strategies of the Puyallup tribal community in Tacoma, Washington, we were interested in assessing the impact of introduced diseases, illnesses, and Western medicine on the tribal societies of the area. We were searching for answers to the following questions: Under what set of situations did the contemporary health care beliefs and practices of the Indian people arise from the aboriginal context? Why did these changes occur?

In 1895, after two years as a field matron in Oklahoma Territory, Eliza Lambe assessed her involvement with the Cheyenne and Arapaho women she knew. Field matrons, she noted, could not rely solely on the power of their positions or their status as Anglo-Americans to gain credibility with tribal women. Experience taught her that ”the first duty of a Field Matron is to gain the confidence and respect of Indian women, impress upon their minds that she is their friend and helper and not a Critic.” Lambe learned this during long hours working side-by-side with women in the Cheyenne and Arapaho communities. Doors opened in friendship, voices lifted in greeting, and tasks shared by the field matron and her Indian counterparts forged valuable cross-cultural ties. ”In every way,” she reported after two years, “I try to be a Mother, Sister, and friend to the Indian women and girls.” Mother, sister, and friend: Eliza Lambe’s self-portrait conjures powerful images of the “bonds of womanhood” from the nineteenth-century Anglo-American female world. It also, however, hints at something else. Given the context for her introspection, a federal program based on an ethnocentric contempt for Indian cultures, this commentary may be read as more than just a guide to success as a field matron. Her report, “The Field Matrons [sic] relationship to Indian women & Girls,” acknowledges that just as Eliza Lambe made an impact on the Cheyenne and Arapaho women and their world, those people and that place influenced her.

Since the late nineteenth century, ethnographers have studied the Cherokee sacred writings known collectively as i:gawé:sdi (to say, one). Our present state of knowledge is indebted to the pioneering translations of these aboriginal rituals preserved in the codified script of the Sequoyah syllabary. A distinction has been made between the "rigid, doctrinaire quality" of these esoteric texts as recorded by the Eastern Band of the Cherokee and the "cabalistic abbreviations, eccentric spellings, and dialectal variants. . ." that characterize the texts of the Western Cherokee? While stylistic differences abound, there are a number of structural principles that all i:gawé:sdi seem to share in common. PREVIOUS STUDIES In his classic study of the Eastern Band, William H. Gilbert, Jr. was able to identify three structuring principles that appear to underlie the recitation of the i:gawé:sdi: opposition, solidarity, and reciprocity. The interplay between social solidarity and opposition most often finds ritual expression in the heated rivalry between villages at stickball games. Here conjurors compete with each other to influence the outcome of the game. It is generally believed that the victory of one village team over another is determined solely by the skill and arcana of the village shaman or didu:hnvwi:sg(i) (curer of them)!

INTRODUCTION The Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest have developed creative and assertive techniques for interacting with tourists. Embedded in specific historic and cultural circumstances, these techniques help the Pueblo Indians survive the pressures of tourist contact, fortify their cultural boundaries, and exercise a degree of power over individuals who are, in most other situations, defined as the more powerful. In this paper I examine two of the techniques that are central to Pueblo tourist management and Pueblo cultural maintenance. Although there is considerable literature examining host/guest dynamics in situations of tourist contact, only recently have researchers regarded indigenous hosts as powerful players in the process. An intriguing analysis of host/guest dynamics offered by Evans-Pritchard treats the indigenous hosts as "subjects" initiating action, rather than merely "objects" acted upon and ultimately doomed by tourism. Although the issue of host control in these interactions is not her focus, Evans-Pritchard does examine Native American/ tourist encounters and notes that, "armed with stereotypes of tourists, and aware of touristic stereotypes of Indians, Indians can exercise more control over frequently uncomfortable situation." She also observes that many Native Americans have much more experience dealing with tourists than tourists have dealing with Native Americans; this gives the latter an advantage in host/guest interactions.

The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning. Ifyou knew when you began a book what you would say at the end, do you think you would have the courage to write it? The game is worthwhile insofar as we don't know what will be the end. -Michel Foucault Technologies of the Self "Since the first contact between Europeans and Native Americans, their relationship has been characterized by various forms of estrangement." So begins Gary Witherspoon's Language and Art of the Navajo Universe. This statement is true enough, but it is not at all certain that Witherspoon's influential representation of the Navajo is not another form of estrangement. The major motivation of the book was, as he put it, "to bring the Navajo world closer and make it more intelligible to non-Navajos," so that Navajo philosophy and art would "take their place alongside other philosophies and art tradition." It should be said at the outset that Witherspoon's effort, at least in terms of his stated intentions, is successful. This book is a useful and informative account of the Navajo culture, especially language, philosophy, and art (e.g., songs, rituals, drypaintings, weavings, jewelry). What is problematic, however, is the manner by which Witherspoon achieves his success. A reading of his writing that is informed by deconstruction will reveal that the means by which he brings the Navajo culture closer and more intelligible to our own are the same devices that simultaneously undermine the persuasive power of his representation of that culture. A number of problems arise from the effect of Witherspoon's extensive use of figurative language in particular, a metaphor of "depth.” The best example is in his main premise that "[s]urface level phenomena [culture] need to be understood and explicated in subsurface level term." From the point of view of poststructuralist theory, Witherspoon's use of this figure unintentionally undermines his explicit claims regarding Navajo art. There also are important implications for the representation of "others," which may indicate something about the history of relations between whites and Indians.

The noble savage, according to eighteenth-century French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, is an individual living in a “pure state of nature”-gentle, wise, uncorrupted by the vices of civilization. Producer-director Kevin Costner brings this vision to his film Dances with Wolves, and thus he creates a nation of Sioux Indians living in a golden age, free from European social convention and removed from the failings of ”civilization.” His film is less about Indian tradition than European romanticism: Its white hero longs for the Arcadian wilderness, pursues his own ”dream woman,” and searches for a nature uncontaminated by contemporary society. Costner’s vision of Sioux life before white contact is a chimerical dream of Native American existence, a portrait of a people doomed to extinction. Dances with Wolves is the story of Lieutenant John J. Dunbar (Kevin Costner) and his life among the Lakota Sioux. The year is 1863, and Dunbar, a Civil War hero, requests a transfer to the isolated Dakota Territory. As the only white in an alien world, he establishes contact and eventually befriends the Sioux. Dunbar adapts to Indian culture, defends the Sioux against attacking Pawnees, and marries a captive white woman who has lived with the band since childhood. When Dunbar later returns to his post to retrieve his diary, the army captures him and accuses him of treason. The Sioux, however, ambush the military party and rescue the officer. Ultimately, the soldiers begin to search for Dunbar, so, in order to protect his Indian friends, he and his wife must leave the Sioux community.