This article examines the ways American Indian authors, particularly three contemporary Anishinaabeg writers, engaged with the question of Native American origins during the racially polarized project of "imagining" the nation of the United States throughout the 19th century. In this article, the author argues that American Indian…

In Leslie Marmon Silko's 1977 novel "Ceremony" the "primacy of the geographical" has often been interpreted as a particularly holistic and healing sense of place--what the critic Robert M. Nelson has characterized as the "spirit of place." This heightened awareness of the spiritual and redemptive power of the natural and the imaginative in…

Critically reviews modern writings about American Indians, focusing on Indian romance novels, children's stories, biographies, works by "urban mixed-bloods," and the "art for art's sake" stance. Views non-Native works as irrelevant and most Native writings as self-centered or escapist. Calls for Native intellectuals to…