The Gods of Indian Country: Religion and the Struggle for the American West
- ISBN-10
- 019027963X
- ISBN-13
- 9780190279639
- Category
- Religion
- Pages
- 304
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2018-03-15
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Author
- Jennifer Graber
Description
During the nineteenth century, white Americans sought the cultural transformation and physical displacement of Native people. Though this process was certainly a clash of rival economic systems and racial ideologies, it was also a profound spiritual struggle. The fight over Indian Country sparked religious crises among both Natives and Americans. In The Gods of Indian Country, Jennifer Graber tells the story of the Kiowa Indians during Anglo-Americans' hundred-year effort to seize their homeland. Like Native people across the American West, Kiowas had known struggle and dislocation before. But the forces bearing down on them-soldiers, missionaries, and government officials-were unrelenting. With pressure mounting, Kiowas adapted their ritual practices in the hope that they could use sacred power to save their lands and community. Against the Kiowas stood Protestant and Catholic leaders, missionaries, and reformers who hoped to remake Indian Country. These activists saw themselves as the Indians' friends, teachers, and protectors. They also asserted the primacy of white Christian civilization and the need to transform the spiritual and material lives of Native people. When Kiowas and other Native people resisted their designs, these Christians supported policies that broke treaties and appropriated Indian lands. They argued that the gifts bestowed by Christianity and civilization outweighed the pains that accompanied the denial of freedoms, the destruction of communities, and the theft of resources. In order to secure Indian Country and control indigenous populations, Christian activists sanctified the economic and racial hierarchies of their day. The Gods of Indian Country tells a complex, fascinating-and ultimately heartbreaking-tale of the struggle for the American West.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2018-03-15
- 304 pages
- Ebook
- Oxford University Press
-
- 2018
- 288 pages
- Paperback
- Oxford University Press
Similar books
-
'Photos of the Gods': The Printed Image and Political Struggle in India
By Christopher PinneyChris Pinney demonstrates how printed images were pivotal to India's struggle for national and religious independence. He also provides a history of printing in India.
-
Indian Country, God's Country: Native Americans And The National Parks
By Philip BurnhamThe story of national parks and Indians is, depending on perspective, a costly triumph of the public interest, or a bitter betrayal of America's native people.In Indian Country, God's Country historian Philip Burnham traces the complex ...
-
India the Land of Gods
By Subhash C Biswas D. Sc.This book presents the travel experience of a couple that visits India to rediscover and explore the glorious vistas of the bygone era.
-
TITANIC GODS OF TAMIL NADU, INDIA: A COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY OF STORIES ON INDIAN AND GREEK GODS
By S. SugumaranIt is thought the readers are in for a shock or two while reading the stories. And also, a real suspense hangs in the balance regarding the stories of ancient Tamil Sangams, the Sptarishis, the Chera, Chola, Pandiya dynasties of Tamil Nadu.
-
The Myths and Gods of India: The Classic Work on Hindu Polytheism
By Alain DaniélouThis message of tolerance and adaptability, the very heart of Hindu polytheism, resounds clearly throughout Alain Danielou's work.
-
Rising Up from Indian Country: The Battle of Fort Dearborn and the Birth of Chicago
By Ann Durkin Keatingsyth and his brother, the ship ladened with their furs fell “into the hands of the enemy” at Mackinac, and they never recovered them.39 In the weeks preceding Lalime's death, Forsyth had been in negotiations with William Clark and ...
-
Sacred Groves and Local Gods: Religion and Environmentalism in South India
By Eliza F. KentConfounding simplistic representations of sacred groves as sites of a primitive form of nature worship, the book shows how local practices and beliefs regarding sacred groves are at once more imaginative, dynamic, and pragmatic than ...
-
The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India
By Sheldon Pollock"The scholarship exhibited here is not only superior; it is in many ways staggering.
-
River of Gods
By Ian McDonaldIan McDonald has written the great Indian novel of the new millennium, in which a war is fought, a love betrayed, a message from a different world decoded, as the great river Ganges flows on.
-
Of Gods and Books: Ritual and Knowledge Transmission in the Manuscript Cultures of Premodern India
By Florinda De SiminiShe gives account of possible implications for the relationships between religion and power. The book is indsipensible for a deeper understanding of the cultural aspects of manuscript transmission in medieval India, and beyond.