The White Man's Indian : Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the Present

Rating:
Summary: the white man's indian: images of the american indian...
Review: berkhofer does a good job explaining the history of the image that caucasian's have of the native american. the only drawback is that it was written 23 years ago and the reader must keep reminding themselves of this fact when faced with outdated material concerning public opinion and/or lack of scholarly developments and discoveries of native society.

Rating:
Summary: the white man's indian: images of the american indian...
Review: berkhofer does a good job explaining the history of the image that caucasian's have of the native american. the only drawback is that it was written 23 years ago and the reader must keep reminding themselves of this fact when faced with outdated material concerning public opinion and/or lack of scholarly developments and discoveries of native society.

Rating:
Summary: Repetitive
Review: Not only is the Text out of date Berkhofer never goes anywhere with his ideas. He just ends up repeating himself over and over until they have lost all meaning. It is amazing to me that a book that has no point could ever get published.

Rating:
Summary: Repetitive
Review: Not only is the Text out of date Berkhofer never goes anywhere with his ideas. He just ends up repeating himself over and over until they have lost all meaning. It is amazing to me that a book that has no point could ever get published.

Rating:
Summary: A case of mistaken geography
Review: Robert Berkhofer writes in his excellent book (The White Man's Indian: Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the Present), the discourse of "Indian-ness" is a Euro-American construction. Indigenous peoples of the Americas did not think of themselves as belonging to some unified group of "Indians" or "Native Americans." That was a Columbus invention and like they say, the rest is history. Conversely, aboriginal peoples deemed themselves Dineh (Navajo) or Nuche (Utes), but certainly not "Indians." The category of 'Indian' is an error of geography. A Ute warrior of 1850 would have been alarmed (to say the least) to learn that anyone thought he had anything in common with an Arapaho, whom he considered dog-eating low life.

The Euro-American construction of a pan-Indian concept and 'lumping' all tribes together led to tragedy on a grand scale. Some children from one group (or tribe) would steal a couple of cows from a wagon train. A few days later, miles down the trail, other "Indians" might appear. The white pioneers would shoot in retribution for the theft - firing at people who had nothing to do with it, and indeed, at people who might well have been glad to join in a raid against the tribe that had committed the theft. The lack of complexity is something the dominant White Euro-American culture had been prepared for is one of Berkhofers arguments. Berkhofer presents his case and does this with a list of examples and scholarly deftness to make it obvious and easy to relate to.

The problem was ignorance but more importantly, it was based upon an agenda of Otherness. 'They' are not like 'Us'. 'They' are a threat to 'Us'. 'We' need to make them good Americans. We don't really understand 'Them' ' what is there to understand. The conception of Indian changes over time a classic example of an Episteme. Indicating that the conception of the 'Indian' was really more an indication of how the White population saw themselves. The effects of oversimplification, lumping and misplaced sense of nationalism (which was really 'Individualism') resulted in what was almost a complete physical destruction of not a cultural one. The white conception of "Indians" is racism, pure and simple - lumping together the large and very diverse peoples on the continent. Berhofer takes us there. For more information also see Celluloid Indian by Kilpatrick (also available on Amazon.com). Be prepared to see things in a different way.

Miguel Llora