American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Kenneth Hale (1972a, 1972b) has stated that the potential future of anthropological linguistics will depend very much upon the involvement of Native American scholars, a statement which is basically applicable to the entire field of Native American Studies. Despite the fact that Native Americans have contributed a substantial amount of publications to this field since at least as early as the 18th century--the poet, artist, and scholar Wendy Rose (1980) has compiled a bibliography containing over two-thousand titles-very little reference has been made to them (Notable exceptions are Liberty 1978 and Larson 1978). Nevertheless, literary productivity in the English language, progressively intensifying throughout the 19th century up until the present, has been an important aspect of Native American political evolution. The steady growth of political awareness, the manifestation of activism and, subsequently, the stepped-up production of scholarly or creative literature are in turn interrelated movements within the general struggle for the preservation of Native American culture and identity. When two distinct cultures come into contact, a system for cross-cultural communication is quickly developed. According to one study on acculturation (Barnett, Broom, Siegel, Vogt, and Watson 1954), as long as autonomous groups are motivated to retain their cultural differences, communication between them will involve either bi- or multilingualism on the part of both; the development of a marginal, mixed, or simplified language; the adoption of a lingua franca; or, at worst, the use of some sort of sign language. In North America, specifically in the present day United States where a neocolonial situation has developed with EuroAmerican society vastly outnumbering and dominating Native American societies, the English language has become the lingua franca for cross-cultural communication. Bilingualism is still practiced among several Native American groups in relatively isolated areas where they still form a substantial part of the population, such as the Arctic and Subarctic; or where a larger group speaking the same language has been forced to live within the confines of a reservation, such as the Navajo; or when smaller groups have managed to maintain a high level of cultural cohesiveness, such as the Pueblo Indians. It is still obvious that a steady language shift towards English has been taking place among all of the groups.

The four decades prior to the release of the Meriam Report in 1928 and the appointment of John Collier as Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1933 have not been viewed as a period of significant accomplishment by writers on Indian education. Indeed, it is possible to conclude, as Senator Edward M. Kennedy's Special Subcommittee on Indian Education concluded in 1969, that such a time has yet to arrive; that the Government's overall record on the subject has been a "failure of major proportions.'" Historians and other commentators on the Federal Government's record in Indian relations have properly viewed the comprehensive and highly respected Merian Report as a document which stimulated at least reform mindedness, if not lasting reform, by calling for an end to the Government's policy of de-Indianizing Indians, as well as a phasing out of grossly inadequate Government boarding schools Commissioner Collier is remembered for his determined and controversial efforts to implement the policy recommendations of the Merian Report, and for encouraging, albeit with minimal success, a rebirth of Indian culture, self-sufficiency, and self-determination. Collier's major achievement in education was the Johnson-O'Malley Act of 1934, an act which provided federal funding to qualifying states for educating Indian children in regular state supported public schools.

During the 1840s the ethnologist Lewis Henry Morgan visited the Iroquois of New York State -particularly the Seneca at Tonawanda -to gather information about their culture. This research led eventually to his study, League of the Iroquois, the first and one of the finest ethnological treatises on the Iroquois. While it seemed easy for Morgan to gather information on Iroquois customs, religion and society, this did not prove the case for those hired to take censuses of the Iroquois. In 1845, the State of New York commissioned ethnologist Henry Rowe Schoolcraft to take a census of the Iroquois people in the State. Schoolcraft received little cooperation from the Indians and soon discovered that the Iroquois were suspicious of the State's growing interest in their numbers and economic condition. The Tonawanda chief, John Blacksmith, asked: Why is this census asked for, at this time, when we are in a straitened position with respect to our reservation? Or if it is important to you or us, why was it not called for before? If you do not wish to obtain facts about our lands and cattle, to tax us, what is the object of the census? What is to be done with the information after you take it to Governor Wright, at Skenectati?

The O-Keepa: A Reprinting Error From the Original Translation A. E. Johnson, Jr. Some of the most colorful pagentry of North American history was recorded by George Catlin in 1832 when he witnessed, wrote about and painted the O-Keepa Ceremony of the Mandan Indians of North Dakota. So graphic were Catlin's depictions of the O-Keepa that Schoolcraft (1851:254) suggested, "the scenes described by Catlin existed almost entirely in the fertile imagination of that gentleman." It is of course now widely acknowledged that it was Schoolcraft and not Catlin who was mistaken regarding the various aspects of this Ceremony. Notwithstanding, shortly after Catlin's visit, Maximilian, Prince of Wied, spent the Fall and Winter of 1833 and 34 with the Mandans. He, like Catlin, also detailed the O-Keepa Ceremony in his journals, Maximilian (1841). In a recent rereading of both the original German text of Maximilian and the first English translation (H . Evans Lloyd, 1843), I found the translation to be virtually without error. However, when Lloyd's translation was reprinted and redistributed as part of the Early Western Travels series edited by Reuben Thwaites (1906), an error was made regarding the torture activity on the fourth and final day of the Ceremony. Those familiar with this Mandan festival will know that the final candidates for torture were attended to on the fourth day. The following passage is taken from the Thwaites edition: "The candidates for the torture are out about two-o'clock in the afternoon; and when they have suffered to the utmost of their powers ... " Thwaites, (1906:332).

Exploring the Dynamics of Indian-Black Contact: A Review Essay Susan A. Kenney Africans and Seminoles: From Removal to Emancipation. By Daniel F. Littlefield, Jf. Contributions in Afro-American and African Studies, Number 32. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977. 278 pp. $15.95. The Cherokee Freedmen: From Emancipation to American Citizenship. By Daniel F. Littlefield, Jf. Contributions in Afro-American and African Studies, Number 40. Westport, CT: Green- wood Press, 1978. 281 pp. $18.95. Africans and Creeks: From the Colonial Period to the Civil War. By Daniel F. Littlefield, Jf. Contributions in Afro-American and African Studies, Number 47. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1979. 286 pp. $22.50. The Chickasaw Freedman: A People Without a Country. By Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr. Contributions in Afro-American and African Studies, Numb er 54. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980. 248 pp. $25.00. When the Great Spirit made man He took dust into His hand, mixed it, blew upon it, and there stood a white man. This sick and feeble being was not what the Great Spirit intended, and He was sorry. The Great Spirit began again and this time a black man stood before Him. He was more disappointed, for this man was black and ugly. On His third attempt, a red man appeared, and He was pleased. Saying that each must fulfill the duties to which they were suited, the Great Spirit offered boxes of tools necessary for their support. Although not His favorite, the white man was given first choice. Examining them all, the white man chose a box of pens, ink, paper, and all the things that white people use. The Great Spirit then told the black man that although he was the second-made, he could not have second choice. Turning to the red man, He smiled and said, "Come, my favorite, and make a choice." The red man chose a box of beaver traps, bows, arrows, and all the things used by Indians. Finally, the Great Spirit gave the black man the remaining box "full of hoes and axes- plainly showing that the black man was made to labor for both the white and the red man. By defining the essence of each race's existence, this Seminole myth provides one example of how American Indians came to grips with a multiracial society. White and Black men in America challenged Indian cosmology and necessitated explanation. Indians had to gain some perspective to define the status of the different racial groups. This myth does precisely that. Both Whites and Blacks are perceived as mistakes, as less than human in the Great Spirit's scheme of the perfect man. The centrality of Seminole personhood is reasserted and the overall assessment reinforces their favored status as the people.