Chapter 9 - Indians, Defeat, Persistence, and Resistance

Summary

Subjected to violence, disease, and dislocation, indigenous cultures and individuals have found ways to voice both mourning for losses and strategies for resistance, survival, and joy. War for Indian peoples moves beyond the hostilities perpetrated on them by the dominant culture. War is also a response away from victimry and towards resistance and resilience, becoming an active presence, a staking of a place, a demand for recognition – literal and figurative acts of what Gerald Vizenor calls “survivance.” This essay focuses on representations of violent conflicts between Europeans and Native Americans by historical and contemporary Indian voices, such as Hendrick Aupaumut, Black Hawk, William Apess, N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Sherman Alexie.