Tag: native americans

“No Savage Shall Inherit the Land”: The Indian Enemy Other, Indiscriminate Warfare, and American National Identity, 1607-1783

by Walter L. Hixson

 

US Foreign Policy and the Other

John Quincy Adams warned Americans not to search abroad for monsters to destroy, yet such figures have frequently habituated the discourses of U.S. foreign policy. U.S. Foreign Policy And The Other focuses on counter-identities in American consciousness to explain how foreign policies and the discourse surrounding them develop. This excerpt, adapted from Chapter 1. “No Savage Shall Inherit the Land”: The Indian Enemy Other, Indiscriminate Warfare, and American National Identity, 1607-1783, looks at how Native Americans, as the primary and quintessential American other, proved central to forging national identity. This book is now available in paperback.

Continue reading ““No Savage Shall Inherit the Land”: The Indian Enemy Other, Indiscriminate Warfare, and American National Identity, 1607-1783” →

Reinventing Holiday

In advance of the approaching holiday, on Monday, October 6th, the Seattle City Council unanimously voted to redesignate the federal Columbus Day holiday as Indigenous Peoples’ Day to reflect that Native Americans were living on the continent before Christopher Columbus’s 15th Century arrival. Reinventing the holiday to a more politically correct and inclusive would celebrate the contributions and culture of the people on the other side of the New World discovery story.

Minneapolis voted in April to replace Columbus Day, while several states, including Alaska, Hawaii and Oregon do not acknowledge the holiday which became a U.S. federal holiday in 1937.

——————————————————————————————————————–

 

Berghahn recognizes the significance of indigenous cultures and is happy to present some of its relevant titles:

 

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND DEMOGRAPHY
The Complex Relation between Identity and Statistics
Edited by Per Axelsson and Peter Sköld

Continue reading “Reinventing Holiday” →