Realism and the Real:

An online anthology of Representations of Native Americans 1865-1900*

    The purpose of this project is to explore the relationship between mainstream depictions of Native Americans and the reality of Native American existence in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Furthermore, this anthology attempts to locate the place of the Native American in terms of mainstream literary trends. One avenue I am going to explore is the relationship between Realism and representations of Native Americans as published by Harper's magazine under the editorship of W.D.Howells. Ultimately I wish to include not only representations of Native Americans from popular journals such as Harper's but also to allow early Native Americans to speak for themselves. Hence this anthology includes both realism and the real by incorporating both   interpretations of Native American experience in line with the realist genre promoted by Howells and Harpers and Native American voices from the time. This anthology will not be limited totexts and instead will include photographs, paintings, advertisements,etc...Ultimately this anthology hopes to provide some insight as to the place of the Native American both within and outside of 19th century American culture.  

*These dates are a rough estimate.

                                                        Resources

Cornell University's Making of America Collection

        Shortcut to Journal Collection

Arizona University's Native American Literature Research Guide

Native American Documents Project

Mitaku Oyasin's extensive catalogue of online information on Native Americans

Maddox, Lucy. Removals: Nineteenth-Century American Literature and the Politics of Indian Affairs.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Scheckel, Susan. The Insistence of the Indian: Race and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century American
Culture. Princeton: Princeton U P, 1998

The Native American in American Literature: A Selectively Annotated Bibliography
Compiled by Roger O. Rock
Berkhofer, Robert. The White Man's Indian: Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the Present. New York:
Knopf, 1978.

Native American identities : from stereotype to archetype in art and literature by Scott B. Vickers.

Harper's magazine, 1850-1950; a centenary address. Allen, Frederick Lewis, 1890-1954.

Harper's magazine.Canby, Henry Seidel, 1878-1961

Reading the West : new essays on the literature of the American West, edited by Michael Kowalewski.

American Indian poetry; an anthology of songs and chants,edited by George W. Cronyn.

American Indian literature and the Southwest : contexts and dispositions, Eric Gary Anderson.

Early native American writing : new critical essays, edited by Helen Jaskoski.

The voice in the margin : Native American literature and the canon / Arnold Krupat.

Indian nation : Native American literature and nineteenth-century nationalisms / Cheryl Walker.

Gifts of the spirit : works by nineteenth-century & contemporary Native American artists,foreword by Dan

Native American perspectives on literature and history,edited by Alan R. Velie.