The Metaphysics of Writing Indian-White History

The writing of Indian-White history is impaired because Angloamerican historians in general have not familiarized themselves with the mythic world of North American Indians. In our historiography we tend either to project our thoughtworld onto the past or to accept and perpetuate that of contemporary White commentators, and in doing so we seriously misrepresent what Indians themselves may have thought about the issue at hand. Increased attention and sensitivity to the Amerindian thoughtworld might result in our emphasizing different, generally ignored themes in the Indian-White dialogue, such as Power/Powerlessness, or revitalization/declension. The writing of Indian-White history by European-Americans is profoundly vitiated by our continuing ignorance of who our Native American subjects are. Those of us in the majority society who scrutinize the past still have very little idea of the Indian mind, of the Indian thoughtworld, if one may be permitted to indulge in monolithic terms and straitjacket Native American cultural diversity for the sake of convenience;' we have only the most rudimentary understanding of Native phenomenology, epistemology, and ontology. We presume to document and interpret the history of a people whose perception of the world for the most part eludes us, whose behavior, as a result, is enigmatic. I am referring of course to ethnocentric bias: the tendency to interpret another culture using the norms and values of one's own culture as a point of reference. Admittedly, there is nothing novel about decrying this tendency among historians, many of whom would doubtless protest that they are faithfully reproducing the literary record of the Indian-White experience. Fair enough. But we should quit deluding ourselves about the significance and explanatory value of such history, for it is essentially White history: White reality, White thoughtworld. As such it has its place, certainly, but the point is that it has subtly transgressed its explanatory boundaries to pose as the sole or only valid or only serious explanation of what transpired when Indian and White met. White history (excuse the oversimplification) - i.e., retrospective White reality, retrospective White thoughtworld, or even the straightforward repetition of reality as perceived and rendered by White

Art · Biology · Epistemology · Genealogy · Literature · Metaphysics · White (mutation) · Archaeology and Natural History · History · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Philosophy

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