The Visual Politics and Poetics of Native American Performance (Leaders: Oscar Giner and William C. Trapani)

This seminar examines recent efforts to correct the representation of Native American peoples in museum and memorial practices, dance ceremonials, photographs and traditional performances. By analyzing the historical development and political force of such efforts we will interrogate their peril and promise, particularly as they relate to the development of an "authentic" Indian voice, and the need to define an aesthetic perspectivein the examination of Native American myths, ceremonials and recorded performances.

Image 1: Geronimo and Natches mounted
Image 2: Council between General Crook and Geronimo

Bibliography

Eve Ball, Indeh: An Apache Odyssey. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988.

Philip J. Deloria. "Hobby Indians, Authenticity, and Race." in Playing Indian. New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 1998, 128-153

Britton Davis, The Truth About Geronimo. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1976.

David W. Penney. "The Poetics of Museum Representations: Tropes of Recent American Indian Art Exhibitions." in The Changing Presentation of the American Indian: Museums and Native Culture. Washington D.C.: National Musem of the American Indian, 2000, 47-66.

Jay Van Orden, Geronimo's Surrender: The 1886 C.S. Fly Photographs. Tucson: Arizona Historical Society (Museum Monograph # 8), 1994.

Gerald Vizenor. "Fugitive Poses." in Fugitive Poses: Native American Indian Scenes of Absence and Presence. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1998, 145-166.

Participants