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This collection of essays examines, in context, eastern Native American speeches, which are translated and reprinted in their entirety. Anthologies of Native American orators typically focus on the rhetoric of western speakers but overlook the contributions of Eastern speakers. The roles women played, both as speakers themselves and as creators of the speeches delivered by the men, are also commonly overlooked. Finally, most anthologies mine only English-language sources, ignoring the fraught records of the earliest Spanish conquistadors and French adventurers. This study fills all these gaps and also challenges the conventional assumption that Native thought had little or no impact on liberal perspectives and critiques of Europe. Essays are arranged so that the speeches progress chronologically to reveal the evolving assessments and responses to the European presence in North America, from the mid-sixteenth century to the twentieth century.
Providing a discussion of the history, culture, and oratory of eastern Native Americans, this work will appeal to scholars of Native American history and of communications and rhetoric. Speeches represent the full range of the woodland east and are taken from primary sources.
List of contents
"Now the Friar is Dead": Sixteenth century Spanish Florida and The Gaule Revolt
"Are You Delusional?": Kandiaronk on Christianity
"By Observing the Methods Our Wise Forefathers Have Taken, You Will Acquire Fresh Strength and Power:" Closing Speech of Canassatego, July 4. 1744, Lancaster Treaty
"Then I Thought I Must Kill Too": Logan's Lament: A Mingo Perspective
"Woman Is the Mother of All": Nanye'hi and Kitteuha: War Women of the Cherokees
"I Hope You Will Not Destroy What I Have Saved": Hopocan before the British Tribunal in Detroit, 1781
"You Are a Cunning People without Sincerity": Sagoyawetha and the Trials of Community Representation
"I am Here and Stand before You Today, My Fathers, as a Man of Misery:" Chitto Harjoa and the Senate Select Committee on Oklahoma Statehood
"The Land Was To Remain Ours": The St. Anne Island Treaty of 1796 and Aboriginal Title and Rights in the 21st Century
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Barbara Alice Mann is professor of humanities in the Jesup Scott Honors College at the University of Toledo, and is the author of 13 books.
