Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians out of Existence in New England (Indigenous Americas)

Across nineteenth-century New England, antiquarians and community leaders wrote hundreds of local histories about the founding and growth of their cities and towns. Ranging from pamphlets to multivolume treatments, these narratives shared a preoccupation with establishing the region as the cradle of an Anglo-Saxon nation and the center of a modern American culture. They also insisted, often in mournful tones, that New England’s original inhabitants, the Indians, had become extinct, even though many Indians still lived in the very towns being chronicled. In Firsting and Lasting , Jean M. O’Brien argues that local histories became a primary means by which European Americans asserted their own modernity while denying it to Indian peoples. Erasing and then memorializing Indian peoples also served a more pragmatic colonial goal: refuting Indian claims to land and rights. Drawing on more than six hundred local histories from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island written between 1820 and 1880, as well as censuses, monuments, and accounts of historical pageants and commemorations, O’Brien explores how these narratives inculcated the myth of Indian extinction, a myth that has stubbornly remained in the American consciousness. In order to convince themselves that the Indians had vanished despite their continued presence, O’Brien finds that local historians and their readers embraced notions of racial purity rooted in the century’s scientific racism and saw living Indians as “mixed” and therefore no longer truly Indian. Adaptation to modern life on the part of Indian peoples was used as further evidence of their demise. Indians did not—and have not—accepted this effacement, and O’Brien details how Indians have resisted their erasure through narratives of their own. These debates and the rich and surprising history uncovered in O’Brien’s work continue to have a profound influence on discourses about race and indigenous rights. Across nineteenth-century New England, antiquarians and community leaders wrote hundreds of local histories about the founding and growth of their cities and towns. Ranging from pamphlets to multivolume treatments, these narratives shared a preoccupation with establishing the region as the cradle of an Anglo-Saxon nation and the center of a modern American culture. They also insisted, often in mournful tones, that New England’s original inhabitants, the Indians, had become extinct, even though many Indians still lived in the very towns being chronicled. In __Firsting and Lasting__, Jean M. O’Brien argues that local histories became a primary means by which European Americans asserted their own modernity while denying it to Indian peoples. Erasing and then memorializing Indian peoples also served a more pragmatic colonial goal: refuting Indian claims to land and rights. Drawing on more than six hundred local histories from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island written between 1820 and 1880, as well as censuses, monuments, and accounts of historical pageants and commemorations, O’Brien explores how these narratives inculcated the myth of Indian extinction, a myth that has stubbornly remained in the American consciousness. In order to convince themselves that the Indians had vanished despite their continued presence, O’Brien finds that local historians and their readers embraced notions of racial purity rooted in the century’s scientific racism and saw living Indians as “mixed” and therefore no longer truly Indian. Adaptation to modern life on the part of Indian peoples was used as further evidence of their demise. Indians did not—and have not—accepted this effacement, and O’Brien details how Indians have resisted their erasure through narratives of their own. These debates and the rich and surprising history uncovered in O’Brien’s work continue to have a profound influence on discourses about race and indigenous rights. MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict CONTENTS 8 AUTHOR’S NOTE ON SOURCES 10 INTRODUCTION: Indians Can Never Be Modern 12 1. FIRSTING: Local Texts Claim Indian Places As Their Own 28 2. REPLACING: Historical Practices Argue That Non-Indians Have Supplanted Indians 82 3. LASTING: Texts Purify the Landscape of Indians by Denying Them a Place in Modernity 132 4. RESISTING: Claims in Texts about Indian Extinction Fail Even As They Are Being Made 172 CONCLUSION: The Continuing Struggle over Recognition 228 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 234 NOTES 238 INDEX 288 A 288 B 288 C 289 D 290 E 290 F 290 G 291 H 291 I 291 J 292 K 292 L 292 M 292 N 293 O 294 P 294 Q 294 R 294 S 295 T 295 U 296 V 296 W 296 Y 296 Driven By A Creative Reading Of Hundreds Of Local Histories, Jean M. O'brien's Firsting And Lasting Reinvigorates The Old Question Of The 'vanishing Indian' In Surprising Ways, Taking Readers Into The Contradictions Surrounding Race And Modernity, And Offering An Ur-history Of The Politics Of Tribal Termination, Dual Citizenship, And Cultural Politics. It Is A Tour De Force From One Of Our Very Best Ethnohistorians.--jacket. Introduction : Indians Can Never Be Modern -- Firsting : Local Texts Claim Indian Places As Their Own -- Replacing : Historical Practices Argue That Non-indians Have Supplanted Indians -- Lasting : Texts Purify The Landscape Of Indians By Denying Them A Place In Modernity -- Resisting : Claims In Texts About Indian Extinction Fail Even As They Are Being Made -- Conclusion : The Continuing Struggle Over Recognition. Jean M. O'brien. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.