Language Choice and Style in Establishing Indigenous Identity
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Ohio Valley Native Americans Speak: Indigenous Discourse on the Continuity of Identity Paul René Tamburro MA, MSW, MA Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Anthropology, Indiana University May 2006 ii Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy. __________________________________ Richard Bauman, Ph.D. (Co-Chairperson) __________________________________ Wesley, K. Thomas, Ph.D. (Co-Chairperson) __________________________________ Stuart Davis, Ph.D. Dissertation Committee __________________________________ Susan C. Shepherd, Ph.D. __________________________________ Richard E. Ward, Ph.D. Date of Oral Examination – May 17, 2006 iii © 2006 Paul René Tamburro ALL RIGHTS RESERVED iv Acknowledgements First, I want to acknowledge the members of my Ph.D. committee. Richard Bauman offered me the opportunity to continue my studies in the social use of language and linguistic anthropology which I began in my first masters program in the early 1980s. His reconceptualizations of my work and encouragement since I met him in my fist semester at IU have been the main “guiding light” for my research directions. Wesley Thomas provided me an important role model, as an American Indian anthropologist. Wesley’s assistance to me as my advisor in the Department of Anthropology went beyond academic advice. He also involved me socially with the annual IU powwow he developed, encouraged my research at the Newbury library in Chicago, and created a climate at IU more open to Native students making it possible to “survive” socially on the Bloomington campus. Stuart Davis, since my first semester, took a regular interest in my studies and provided, for me, a comfortable feeling of connection to the Linguistics Department, both as my minor field and socially. I have enjoyed all our meetings to discuss my work over a cup of coffee at the Runcible Spoon! Richard Ward was Chair of the Anthropology Department at IUPUI when I began teaching there part-time. Since hiring me to teach he has been full of encouragement in many ways. It was through my part-time teaching I was able to fund some of my doctoral work. Susan Shepherd has been a tremendous help to me by agreeing to be on my committee as she provides a connection to the original linguistic anthropological focus this research had at its beginnings. The varied backgrounds in linguistic, cultural and physical anthropology, folklore, and “mainstream” linguistics of the members of committee have been very v valuable to me and seem very appropriate since my research direction developed into a more Four Field anthropology design over the course of its evolution. I would also like to acknowledge several faculty members that worked with me and encouraged me especially closely over my years at IU. Philip Lesourd for his many hours spent in understanding Algonquian morphology. Paula Girshick, Ray DeMallie and Anya Royce helped me greatly in understanding various aspects of cultural anthropology and were very encouraging. Richard Wilk and Eduardo Brondizio both helped me greatly in their positions as department chairs and Eduardo by also being part of my qualifying exam committee. Thanks to Nick Toth and Kathy Schick for their encouragement and, by employing my wife as a research associate, indirect financial assistance making my Ph.D. more financially possible. John Johnson helped me by providing advice on my dissertation and for many hours discussing Cherokee worldviews and issues of Native identity in the Ohio Valley. His ongoing friendship is much appreciated. Also, the Department of Anthropology staff at IU were wonderful! Especially, I thank Debra Wilkerson, who was, since day one and continuing to the present, a tremendous help to me in sorting out the many logistical and registration challenges that I encountered as an IU doctoral student, many thanks Debra! I give acknowledgement and many thanks, Gitci Oliwini, to Cecile Wawanolet, my Abenaki elder who encouraged me to take the time and finish my Ph.D. as she said “to help our people and preserve our language”. I plan to honor the many hours we spent together on the Abenaki language by doing future work in the area of language preservation and restoration. I will continue this work also with the many people of the Ohio Valley Native community who have requested help in restoring some of the Ohio vi Valley linguistic diversity. I give many thanks to those people that helped and encouraged me in this research by providing interviews, invitations to events, places to stay food to eat and regular encouragement. I especially thank members of the Piqua Shawnee Tribe (a state recognized tribe with members in all the states of my research) and members of the various Ohio Valley Native organizations and groups mentioned in this dissertation. I am almost afraid to mention names for fear that I’m sure to miss some people important to this work, but I must try to list many of the Native people who helped. Please forgive any omissions and let me know if you read this so I may make it up in the future! Thanks to Katie and Phil Rose-Walker, Don Rankin, Red Crow Snapp, Red Hawk “Frank” Otero, Helen Dancer, Gary Hunt, Sara and Rick Wagar (one of my favorite Two Spirit People), Abby Wagar, Beth Sanchez, Gene Park, Angela Henry (and her daughter Reina), Jerry McClure, Meredith Walker, “Dewey” and his son, Edith West- Park, Deborah Hurst, Mary Dockery “Blessed Star”, Barbara Lehmann, Tina Stephens, “Ivy”, Darrell Coleman, Sandy and Bear “Dan” Duff, Tom and Martha Jones, Rudy Koos, and Ken Tankersley. Also the many individual Native people in and around Bloomington and Bedford Indiana that provided input! This dissertation, at this stage of my life, would have been impossible without my wife Andrea’s help. She found full-time employment as a research associate in Bloomington while working only part-time on her own doctorate. Of course I could go on and on with the “thanks” to her! So in Shawnee, Nyah weh, Nyah weh, Nyah weh! I also thank the Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops BC where I currently work as an assistant professor. TRU has provided me access to several small grants and travel funds to complete my research and travel to defend this dissertation. vii ABSTRACT Since the 1960’s there has been an increase in the assertion of a Native American identity across North America. This identification has been expressed in the Ohio Valley region (Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky) through performance at powwows, re-enactments and restored ceremonies. For the most part in the United States, acceptance of American Indian identification is founded on government recognition, racial appearance, or language. As no Native American languages are still spoken in the region, the “racial” appearance of Ohio Valley Native people is “mixed” or ambiguous, and government recognition is absent for most groups, the question arises of how an Ohio Valley Native identity has developed and been maintained over time. In pursuit of answers to this question, data were gathered at powwows, historic re-enactments, living history enactments, and other events where Ohio Valley Native people participate. Newsletters of Indian organizations and books influencing the expression of a Native Ohio identity also served as sources of primary data. Ethnohistorical research further illuminated the factors that shaped elements of Native American identity in the Ohio Valley. The analysis of interviews and the other data demonstrate that the claim to Native American identity in the Ohio Valley is not, as some have suggested, a newly emergent construction. Rather, Native American identity has been maintained performatively in some quarters for many generations while remaining submerged in others. This Native identity continues to be constructed and performed drawing from a combination of Ohio Valley "folk" culture, Appalachian rural culture and “Pan-Indian” powwows. Similarities and connections were also found to exist with other mixed North American peoples, such viii as the Métis of Canada and the northern US, and those asserting an Ohio Valley Native identity. These findings counter widely held conceptions that there are no “real Indians” in the Ohio Valley, call into question the bases on which such claims are made, and provide a basis for new understandings of how claims to identity are negotiated among Indigenous peoples in North America. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction………………………………………………………………………..... 1 Statement of problem and background to this study……………………….................. 2 The need for this Present Study………………………………………………............. 4 Methodology used in this study……………………………………………................. 7 Recording and Interviews………………………………………………….................. 14 Chapter 2: The Ohio Valley Native Community ………………………………..... 19 Areal Range and sites of this study…………………………………………............... 20 Demographics - participants, recruitment and modes of engagement…….................. 25 Indians: The official numbers……………………………………………….............. 27 Native and non-Native “Indigenists”, “Activists” & “Adopted Indians”…................ 33 Non- Indian Hobbyists, Boy Scouts and Indianists………………………................. 36 Reenactors, historians, anthropologists and researchers………………….................. 40 Ohio Valley Natives in historical perspective, Multiracial and Métis……................. 45