Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel (American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series)

614 Pages·1994·1.48 MB·English

by  Louis Owens

Other Destinies : Understanding the
title: American Indian Novel American Indian
Literature and Critical Studies Series ; V. 3
author: Owens, Louis.
publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
isbn10 | asin: 0806126736
print isbn13: 9780806126739
ebook isbn13: 9780585168814
language: English
American fiction--Indian authors--History
subject and criticism, Indians of North America--
Intellectual life, Indians in literature.
publication date: 1994
lcc: PS153.I52O74 1994eb
ddc: 813.009/897
American fiction--Indian authors--History
subject:
and criticism, Indians of North America--
Intellectual life, Indians in literature.
Page iii
Other Destinies
Understanding the American Indian Novel
By Louis Owens
University of Oklahoma Press : Norman
Page iv
By Louis Owens
(with Tom Colonnese) American Indian Novelists: An Annotated
Critical
Bibliography (Baltimore, 1985)
John Steinbeck's Re-Vision of America (Athens, Georgia, 1985)
The Grapes of Wrath: Trouble in the Promised Land (Boston, 1989)
Wolfsong (Albuquerque, 1991)
The Sharpest Sight (Norman, 1992)
Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel (Norman,
1992)
Bone Game (Norman, 1994)
This book is published with the generous assistance of The
McCasland Foundation, Duncan, Oklahoma.
Owens, Louis.
Other destinies: understanding the American Indian novel / by
Louis Owens.1st ed.
p. cm.(American Indian literature and critical studies se-
ries; v. 3)
Includes bibliographical references.
1. American fictionIndian authorsHistory and criticism.
2. Indians of North AmericaIntellectual life. 3. Indians in
literature. I. Title. II. Series.
PS153.152074 1992 923507
813.009'897-dc20 CIP
ISBN: 0-8061-2423-7 (cloth)
ISBN: 0-8061-2673-6 (paper)
Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel is Volume
3 in the American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources, Inc.
Copyright © 1992 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman,
Publishing Division of the University. All rights reserved.
Manufactured in the U.S.A. First edition, 1992. First paperback
printing, 1994.
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Page v
For mixedbloods, the next generation
Page vi
Yes, we are between two fires, the Red and the White. Our Caucasian brothers
criticize us as a shiftless class, while the Indians disown us as abandoning our
own race. We are maligned and traduced as no one but we of the despised
"breeds" can know.
Mourning Dove, Cogwea, the Half-Blood
Mixedbloods loosen the seams in the shrouds of identities.
Gerald Vizenor, "Crows Written on the Poplars"
Page vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1. Other Destinies, Other Plots: An Introduction to Indian 3
Novels
2. Origin Mists: John Rollin Ridge's Masquerade and 32
Mourning Dove's Mixedbloods
3. Maps of the Mind: John Joseph Mathews and D'Arcy 49
McNickle
4. Acts of Imagination: The Novels of N. Scott Momaday 90
5. Earthboy's Return: James Welch's Acts of Recovery 128
6. "The Very Essence of Our Lives": Leslie Silko's Webs 167
of Identity
7. Erdrich and Dorris's Mixedbloods and Multiple 192
Narratives
8. Ecstatic Strategies: Gerald Vizenor's Trickster 225
Narratives
Notes 255
References 275
Bibliography of American Indian Novels 283
Index 286

Page ix
Acknowledgments
A work such as this depends on the aid and insights of many. My
gratitude goes to the National Endowment for the Humanities for a
grant that allowed me time to research and write, to the University of
New Mexico for providing funds for travel and research, and to the
University of California at Santa Cruz for the support that enabled me,
at very long last, to complete this study. I am indebted to Kimberly
Wiar of the University of Oklahoma Press for her enthusiam and
encouragement and to Fred Hoxie and the staff of the D'Arcy
McNickle Center at the Newberry Library for their patient assistance.
The individuals to whom I owe debts of gratitude are numerous: N.
Scott Momaday, for a conversation more than twenty years ago that
planted the seed of this study and for his generosity with both time
and words; Gerald Vizenor, for friendship and wisdom as well as the
generous access to unpublished materials he has provided over the
years; LaVonne Ruoff, for being an invaluable font of knowledge;
Michael Dorris, for providing me with copies of unpublished
materials and for his unceasing kindness; Terry Wilson, for his careful
and informed reading of this study and valuable suggestions as well as
humor; Dorothy Parker, for her friendship and for sharing her rich
knowledge of D'Arcy McNickle with me; Jay Miller, for allowing me
to read and quote from work in progress; Susan Scarberry-Garcia, for
providing me with a manuscript copy of her excellent study of House
Made of Dawn; Luci Tapahonso and Patricia Clark Smith, for their
friendship, advice, and encouragement; and