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UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE “THE WISH TO BECOME A RED INDIAN:” INDIANTHUSIASM AND RACIAL IDEOLOGIES IN GERMANY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By KELLY RACHEL LAFRAMBOISE Norman, Oklahoma 2017 “THE WISH TO BECOME A RED INDIAN:” INDIANTHUSIASM AND RACIAL IDEOLOGIES IN GERMANY A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY BY ______________________________ Dr. Sean O’Neill Chair ______________________________ Dr. Misha Klein ______________________________ Dr. Amanda Minks ______________________________ Dr. Asa Randall ______________________________ Dr. Robert Lemon © Copyright by KELLY RACHEL LAFRAMBOISE 2017 All Rights Reserved. This labor of love is dedicated to Jamie and our children… and Slavica. Acknowledgements The journey to produce this dissertation would not have been possible without the support, encouragement, and dedication given to me by many people who have all touched my life in profoundly meaningful ways. I have grown from a timid and anxious first-generation undergrad into a confident and compassionate professional, in part due to the friendships, mentorships, and even burnt bridges I have experienced on this path. I wish to thank my writing and editing supporters, Drs. Janessa Doucette, Tammi Hanawalt, and Kiersten Baughman, and my dear friends, Alyx Kesselring and Cameron Brockmann. Without their keen eyes, smart suggestions, and blunt direction, I would still be stuck on page one. I became a life-long learner and a dedicated social justice warrior at Loyola University Chicago. Not a day of writing goes by when I do not remember the late Dr. Paul Breidenbach telling me that anthropology is not something you read; it is something you feel… something you do… a way you passionately live your life to make other lives matter… to make them matter as much as your own does. Thanks to Dr. Breidenbach, I have passionately tried to live my life to make other lives matter. In addition to shaping my professional paradigm, Loyola provided an opportunity for me to meet some of my closest friends. One such opportunity has developed into a beautiful, transatlantic, but close-knit friendship with Iain Perdue. I owe him a great debt of gratitude for his iv sacrifices of time and finances to host and accompany me during key points of my fieldwork travels. More importantly, he has been a constant source of encouragement, support, and honest critique during much of my academic journey. Iain (whom I lovingly call “Kip”) has held my hand at times, and pushed me to take independent risks at other times. Though, physically, he is thousands of miles away, his influence and intellectual fostering appear nuanced in these pages. My doctoral research was possible because of three major funding opportunities. I received the 2016-2017 Nancy Mergler Dissertation Fellowship which allowed me to comfortably travel to and throughout Germany for fieldwork. I also received multiple travel grants and stipends from the Max Planck Society Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany where Dr. Günther Schlee has been a major source of mentorship and confidence-boosting throughout my doctoral program. Third, but perhaps most endearing to my heart, is the Ancestor Fellowship and grant I received from the Illinois Holocaust Museum to travel to Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Oşwięcim, Poland to collaborate on-site for an ethnographic and qualitative-survey with Max Planck Society. This experience was life-changing in many ways. The sheer dark and deep emotion felt during just one day at the memorial penetrates even the strongest hearts of those among us, but multiplied by several v weeks, it becomes one’s paradigm for viewing the world, and understanding the capacity for both human hatred, and love. While the Auschwitz project was not part of my dissertation research, it solidified many of the thoughts and inclinations I had about racial and nationalist discourses; however, it is the relationships I built with fellow researchers, Holocaust survivors, and Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum staff that I cherish most from this experience. Survivor, Fritzie Fritzshall, continues to teach me about hope during times of fragility, and integrity during times of recovery and growth. Likewise, survivor, Sam Harris, continues to show me grace in facing fear and uncertainties, and resilience in rebuilding broken dreams. Their friendship and mentorship mean the world to me. I also have many people to acknowledge in Europe. Drs. Markus Lindner, Frank Usbeck, Mario Bührmann, and Renate Bartl each offered valuable insights and pushed me to think outside the box, and from a diverse set of lenses as I approached the murky topics of cultural appropriation and nationalist ideologies. Each of these scholars and teachers enthusiastically and patiently met with me (and even housed me) on multiple occasions as I inquired about their firsthand experiences with Indianthusiasm. I owe a debt of gratitude for their direction and nuanced advice. vi I would like to thank Ed Bryant, Quinton Pipestem, and Kendall Old Elk (and his family), ex-pat Native American artists and dancers at El Dorado, a Wild West theme park in Templin, Germany. Their hospitality, friendship, and continued support, as well as their personal insights on, and experiences with Indianer continue to give my research direction. Mentors at the University of Oklahoma steered me to take informed risks, and have the confidence to take criticism and turn it into legitimate scholarly contribution. Drs. Misha Klein, Asa Randall, Gus Palmer, Amanda Minks, Alison Fields, and Robert Lemon lent me countless hours of council, advice, and discussion on everything from theory, writing, and literatures, to ensuring I practiced self-care, spent time with my family, and enjoyed life outside of the library and institution. Above and beyond the normal expectations of committee members, Dr. Misha Klein took a vested interest in not only my success, but in my journey to become a passionate anthropologist and social justice activist. Never once did she let me slide through a crack, become uninterested, or disengage from the pursuit. She has been my cheerleader, confidant, coach, and – at times – provider of hard truths (which only made me grow and blossom more). I could not have reached this milestone without her devotion and commitment. She is, without a doubt, the University of Oklahoma’s rare jewel. vii Also without question, my success on this academic journey would not have been nearly as great without the insurmountable support from my doctoral advisor, Dr. Sean O’Neill. In German, his title as my advisor is “Doktorvater” (Doctoral Father). This title is fitting in many ways, but none more so than because he is the one who has consistently led by example, been a constant source of encouragement and pride, and has lifted me from immature ignorance of social philosophy to scholarly understanding and published contributions in diversity and multiculturalism. This dissertation is as much a reflection of his benevolent mentorship as it is of my expedition through critical discourse analysis. The influence of his own research will be clear at various points in this dissertation, but even more important are the many meandering conversations we have had, in which race, nationalism, and sociopolitical discourses usually figured prominently, but alongside family, music, food, Star Trek, Buddhist philosophy, and so much else. My grad school journey started with a painful, heart-wrenching “see you later” to my kindred spirit in Chicago, Slavica Petrovic. As sometimes (but rarely) happens, our friendship grew into a secure bond that can never be broken, despite being separated by hundreds of miles. Slavica and her family taught me invaluable lessons of love, hope, and resilience. This dissertation is a result of her insistence that the sacrifice will be temporary because love is stronger than the pain of distance. viii Andrew, Sarah, and Simon, my three children, have endured a lifetime of compromises and “alternative fun” as accomplices in this academic pursuit. They have entertained me, kept me young, and taught me priceless lessons of forgiveness, honesty, and humility. My only hope is that throughout this encounter, they have learned to make the world safe for human differences, to laugh away fear and anxieties, and to embrace every opportunity that comes their way. Lastly, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for a lifetime of love, commitment, assurance, and laughter shared with my husband, Jamie. His selfless promise to support me around every corner and in every crevasse of life has been the guiding light for this academic odyssey, and the backbone of our 20+ year marriage. Only he truly knows what the journey to this dissertation means to me. Without his partnership, kindness, and remarkable ability to center my emotions, I would have never reached this milestone, let alone still be alive. Kelly R. LaFramboise ix Table of Contents Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents x Abstract xi Preface 1 Chapter One: Sitting Bull Will Guide Us 22 Chapter Two: I’m Not Racist, But… 61 Chapter Three: Designer Genes & Souvenir Sperm 99 Chapter Four: Avatarland 139 Chapter Five: Social Memory 169 Chapter Six: Implications 199 References 214 x Abstract This dissertation analyzes the role of Indianer1 – Germans (and other Europeans) who wish to be Native American so much that they embody and practice essentialized notions of Native American cultural traditions – in German racial discourses. Indianer reconstructions of indigenous identities are based on fictional, romanticized, and racist representations of nineteenth century Native Americans. Myths of race and memory, as well as consumption of medically- engineered zygotes, and participation in plastic tourism all contribute to the racial and nationalist discourses of “Indianthusiasm” in Germany. Using critical race theory, discourse analysis, and ethnohistorical frameworks, this research reveals nuanced resurgences of WWII era German racial ideologies, as well as a broader, global look at misrepresentations of indigeneity and environmental stewardship.
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