Re -wor(l)ding Indian survival: Language and sovereignty in Native American literature

My dissertation, "Rewor(l)ding Indian Survival: Language and Sovereignty in Native American Literature," argues that contemporary Indian survival lies in the ability to engage in critical and imaginative narratives which create and restore a continued Indigenous presence. Furthermore, that it is an intellectual and spiritual practice, manifest in language use, that best describes an American Indian politic/community. My theoretical foundation consists primarily of language theories by Southwestern indigenous writers (specifically Leslie Marmon Silko, Simon J. Ortiz and Luci Tapahonso).;Chapter one specifies a nuanced perspective of language use and a form of writing practiced by contemporary Native American authors. This form of writing is informed by, but not in opposition to the oral tradition. My perspective is centered in the concepts of "talking Indian" and "terminal creeds" developed by Anna Lee Walters and Gerald Vizenor respectively. N. Scott Momaday's eloquent and highly theoretical explorations of the oral tradition permeate and inform all aspects of this chapter. The second chapter is a more specific treatment of terminology and narrative practice. I examine the words Indian, Indio, Mestizo and Mixed Blood as they are used to ossify and reveal the subtle ways Indigenous peoples are codified, dismembered and remembered in current popular and intellectual practice. Chapter three provides a close reading of the novel Ghost Singer with particular emphasis on a critique of traditional historical narratives and narrative practices, in addition to examining the role of museum acquisitions and displays in the destruction of Native American cultures. Finally, I conclude by applying Vizenor's particular theory of sovereignty as it refers to the type of movement (intellectual, physical and spiritual) necessary to inform the growing field of Native American Studies, particularly in its relationship to coexisting fields of study. From this position, with a heightened sense of the possibility inherent in language and narrative practice all scholars may continue developing processes that enable us theorize relations, not discontinuities.