| Writing Indians: Literacy, Christianity, and Native Community in Early America Contributor(s): Wyss, Hilary E. (Author) |
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ISBN: 155849412X ISBN-13: 9781558494121 Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press OUR PRICE: $25.60 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: July 2003 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Native American - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - Native American Studies - Literary Criticism | Native American |
| Dewey: 810 |
| Series: Native Americans of the Northeast: Culture, History, & the Contemporary (Paperback) |
| Physical Information: 0.66" H x 5.08" W x 8.98" (0.77 lbs) 224 pages |
| Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - Native American - Religious Orientation - Christian |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: A study of cultural encounter, this book takes a fresh look at the much ignored and often misunderstood experience of Christian Indians in early America. Focusing on New England missionary settlements from the mid-seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries, Hilary E. Wyss examines the ways in which Native American converts to Christianity developed their own distinct identity within the context of a colonial culture. With an approach that weaves together literature, religious studies, and ethno-history, Wyss grounds her work in the analysis of a rarely read body of autobiographical writings by Christian Indians, including letters, journal entries, and religious confessions. She then juxtaposes these documents to the writings of better known Native Americans like Samson Occom as well as to the published works of Anglo-Americans, such as Mary Rowlandson's famous captivity narrative and Eleazor Wheelock's accounts of his charity schools. In their search for ostensibly authentic Native voices, scholars have tended to overlook the writings of Christian Indians. Yet, Wyss argues, these texts reveal the emergence of a dynamic Native American identity through Christianity. More specifically, they show how the active appropriation of New England Protestantism contributed to the formation of a particular Indian identity that resisted colonialism by using its language against itself. |