ERIC Number: EJ832231
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 30
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0095-182X
EISSN: N/A
Memories of the Alabama Creek War, 1813-1814: U.S. Governmental and Native Identities at the Horseshoe Bend National Military Park
Black, Jason Edward
American Indian Quarterly, v33 n2 p200-229 Spr 2009
One of the most colorful examples of the reflection of identities in heritage sites involves the historical U.S.-Native relationship. In exploring the topic of U.S.-Native memories, this article focuses on the cultural identities represented at the Horseshoe Bend National Military Park (HBNMP), a heritage site that commemorates the Creek War of 1813-14. The Creek War involved conflicts between the Upper Creek Nation (specifically, the Red Stick band) and the U.S. government over claims of ownership to Mississippi Territory--land that the Red Sticks occupied and that the government sought to possess. This article examines the discursive memory field of the HBNMP to question how U.S. governmental and Red Stick national identities are remembered through contemporary representations of the battle. The analysis reveals that these memories fashion dominant and colonizing hero-villain and civilized-savage identities between the U.S. government and Red Sticks, respectively. Simultaneously, though, the memories rupture Americentric interpretations of the battles and myths, thus allowing space for a resistive indigenist reading of identities. This analysis does not seek to discover intent or measure some empirical effect on visitors but to demonstrate what exists within the spaces of the identities reflected at the HBNMP. The author proceeds, first, by exploring the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and the National Park Service's creation of the park as contextual bedding for the analysis of the site's memory field. He then discusses the theoretical ways that history sites influence U.S.-Native memories and identities through dominant and resistive lenses. Next, he reads memories and identity constructions of the Battle of Horseshoe Bend for these dominant and resistive codes. (Contains 98 notes.)
Descriptors: United States History, Parks, American Indians, Federal Government, Cultural Influences, Identification (Psychology), Cultural Background, Memory, Misconceptions, Racial Bias, Social Bias, Historic Sites, Museums, Whites, War, Resistance (Psychology)
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A